Ups and Downs
by liketoimagine
Summary: Diana and Clark find themselves trapped on an unknown planet in a competition for survival.
1. Prequel: Part 1

Authors Note: I started this new story because I really didn't like the route I took last time. This is just kind of fun. I don't know, I guess just comment if you like it! Thanks so much!

He started to become concerned that she wouldn't show up.

He spent the night following the league's restoration efforts on his TV's news channel and was repeatedly told by league members the situation was under control. He called in so frequently, he started to think some of the members blocked his frequency on their communication systems.

Diana was on the mission, and the helicopter cameras followed her for most of the news coverage; she had a rough time trying to manage the crowds and the overwhelming flood waters tearing down houses. By some miracle everything was done and settled by 11:10 pm. News coverage stopped, but Diana hadn't shown up to Clark's home.

Had she forgotten to visit him? Why was her com link not on?

The clock was ticking away the time with an obstinate persistence. The hour hand was only a few minutes away from twelve.

Soon the sound of the analog clock ticking became all Clark could hear. It annoying ticking reverberated in his head as he waited. So much so that he decided to make the change to mechanical clocks first thing after waking up.

"_I'll be there by 12 latest." _ That was what Diana had told him. "_Of course, we can meet later. I don't want to be such an inconvenience, and the mission may not end as neatly as I hope." _

But Clark had insisted on meeting tonight. He had procrastinated on asking her for nearly a month. He feared just pushing it just _another_ day would lead to further procrastination on his part.

He was so nervous. He was never this nervous about her. He shouldn't be so nervous.

And just as the dinner he made for them started to get cold for the fourth time, he heard a new sound.

Through the repetitive ticking of the clock he heard her steps up the stairs to his apartment, light and rushed. Then he heard her keys turn in his lock; he'd forgotten he'd given her keys for that weekend he went off world.

She walked in wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants, hair windswept, and small cuts and scars from her mission about a half hour ago.

The door opened with a gust of wind that sent the smell of soap and flowers spiraling into Clark's home.

"Kal, I'm so sorry. This is incredibly late; I went home to shower and change because I knew I needed to return this key anyway." She walked over to where he sat on the sofa and put the key on the coffee table; its little Superman key chain made a clink noise as it hit the table.

In the same breath she continued, "I'm sure you have work tomorrow. Maybe we can meet later tomorrow—" She suddenly paused and took in the smell of the tacos Clark had prepared.

Clark was sitting on the couch, somewhat slumped, two plates laid out in front of him.

Her eyes softened and her stomach growled, "You made dinner… Clark, I was only kidding when I said I would only come if you made dinner. Now I feel really, really bad Clark." She sat tall next to him on the couch.

Clark turned to her smiling with bright happy eyes, "I've been watching the news, it's not your fault you are a bit late. Besides, I thought dinner would be nice since we haven't spent a lot of time together recently. I was going to make dinner anyway."

"You must be famished waiting for me Clark." Her body slumped on the couch as she relaxed. She looked at him with eyes open and innocent.

"I'd say it's worth it, because now I get to share a meal with you."Clark took a bite of his taco, the cheese and meat squeezing out the other end onto his plate.

"I could never ask for a better best friend Clark." Every word she said was so sincere Clark couldn't help but feel touched.

"Do you like yours?" he fixed her eyes on her expectantly. She had made fun of his intolerance to spicy foods last week, and so he put in a few pinches of spicy powder in hers.

Diana smiled and struggled to swallow as laughter shook her body after the first bite. "Are you still sour about the spicy food insult?"

"No," he mocked a pouty face, "but is the taco spicy enough for you princess?"

He was internally laughing at the manners she put into eating her taco. She was careful to make sure nothing spilled out of the other side, set a napkin on her lap, and crossed her legs to make sure nothing fell.

Giving Clark a nasty look at the word "princess" she said, "Perfect. Thank-you. But on a serious note, why did you want to see me so badly tonight? Is everything okay?" Her voice dripped with concern as she shifted her body on the couch so she was facing him.

"Everything is fine. It's actually just a big deal to me. You know about the journalism award function next weekend?"

"Of course! I saw you were nominated and I was actually going to congratulate you tonight."

He smiled at her; of course she was going to. "You know you actually inspired me to write that? You remember that day right?"

Diana smiled slyly, "I was hoping you'd bring that up."

It was one of Clark's darkest days, it was the anniversary of the day his parents passed on. He felt so lonely, so desperate. He was sitting on the roof of his farmhouse, and Diana came and sat next to him.

She understood what was happening, and just sat with him. No words, but she had reached out for his hand. Eventually, she simply said, "_Write about it. That would be a nice way to remember. They seemed like people who would love your writing."_

Clark didn't say anything in response, but she stayed with him through that night. Tired of sitting they made an unspoken agreement to spend the rest of the night looking up at the stars from the rooftop. And when frustrated tears started dripping from Clark's tired eyes, she reached out and squeezed his hand. Her support was everything he needed that night.

Later he did just that; he wrote an article on what it feels like to lose parents. A nice twist he added was finding parallels between what he's felt and what he's heard from orphans all over the world. It was certainly unique, and he believed that was the piece's strongest quality.

Diana broke Clark's moment reminiscing by saying, "Oh Clark, where would you be without your best friend here?" She laughed at her own joke.

Clark loved these silly moments, her humor, everything she was right there with him, only with him.

Clark, whose mouth was filled with food, made the "I don't know" gesture. The seconds after that were filled with the low sound of the television as both of them scarfed down their food ravenously hungry.

Then Clark readjusted himself so he too was facing her. Somewhat scared and nervous he looked down at her hands as he spoke.

"I want you to come with me. To the award ceremony."

"What?"

"I want you to be there if I win this award."

"Clark, honestly, I am so honored and by the gods would I love to come, but—"

"But, Wonder Woman and Clark Kent would make things a bit obvious right?"

"Yes, Clark that is my initial thought."

"Bruce offered to work up fake documents for you, and I can help make you look less —err… Amazon warrior-ish with some technology. That way you can enjoy some aspects of civilian life as well, and then you'd simply be Diana, my best friend."

"So, you wish me, essentially, to create a fake person so I can come to this award ceremony with you."

"I know, it sounds crazy, but there is no one else I'd want to take to this more than you." He finally got enough strength to look her in the eye. This was Diana, his best friend of two years, he had nothing to fear.

"You being there is very important to me."

"Well, if it is that important to you Clark, I have full intentions of attending." She smiled at him. He certainly knew how to make Diana feel special. "Out of curiosity wouldn't Louis want to be there?"

"She had a piece nominated too, so she's going with her boyfriend."

"Well in that case, what name do you think I should pick? For my civilian identity?" she questioned excitedly.

"I don't know. I feel like anything other than Diana would be weird."

"I agree, most people know Wonder Woman, hardly anyone would draw the connection to the name Diana."

"So Diana it is. You know I think I actually have the glasses I wear right here. You can try them on." He walked into his bedroom, pulled them off a table, and walked to the mirror in his bathroom. "Come in here Di."

Once she walked in to the bathroom she put the glasses on, "I look the same Clark."

Though Clark didn't agree he said, "Well, maybe pulling your hair back a little would help."

Diana grabbed her hair and held it in a pile behind her head. She giggled, "Really Clark? Do you think I look different?"

Clark did, her eyes were not as bright as the usual light blue. The sharp angles of her face seemed somewhat diminished. But she was still so beautiful, her smile still so bright and joy filled, her lips still so…kissable. Clark shook the last thought out of his mind aggressively.

He blurted, "Yes! Different enough for people to not recognize you." He came up behind her and held her hair back for her so she could get a better look.

She examined herself in the mirror, "I think you are a little crazy, but you have a lot more experience with this than I do." She placed his glasses back the bathroom counter and Clark let her hair flow loose again.

Back in the living room Diana said, "So where am 'I' from? Where do 'I' work?"

"You can be a foreign correspondent for Wayne Co. That's similar to what you do as a diplomat."

"I like that idea, and I can be a simple Grecian girl who ended up studying in the states and making it big in business. "

"You may be having a little too much fun with this." He stated sarcastically. Diana playfully swatted him, and got up.

"Where's your soda Clark?"

"I knew you were coming so I hid them from you. They are bad for your health Di." Clark had the biggest goofy smile on. He loved pushing her buttons a little.

"If they are so unhealthy why do you have enough to fill a grocery store?" Diana finally found where he kept them in his pantry. "Would you like one?"

"Yes please princess, or do you prefer goddess now?"

At being called princess Diana threw his soda can at him a little harder than normal. When Clark caught it, the soda exploded all over his shirt and the sound of the sizzling drink dripping became the only sound in the room.

"Oh my gods, I am so sorry Clark. Honestly, I did not intend to throw that deliberately." Clark couldn't tell how truthful she was being.

She rushed over and started to clean the soda on the floor. As she was cleaning, Diana struggled swallowing her laughter at seeing Clark's discomfort at being covered in soda.

After a few minutes of shock he started to laugh too, "So I think I finally get it, no more calling you princess."

"Prince."

"Prince what?" Clark tried to clean his sticky hands in the kitchen as he continued the conversation.

"I need a last name, Diana Prince would be nice," She paused cleaning to look Clark in the eyes, "like our own little joke." She seemed please with her choice.

"Well Ms. Prince, let me get that—well your mess cleaned up."

In a burst of speed Clark cleaned all that was left to clean. "I'm just going to go take a quick shower. Catch up on the news until then, I'll be back really soon."

Once Clark left, in obvious discomfort at being covered in sticky sugary soda, Diana's laughter exploded.

Clark screamed, "I can hear you." And Diana silenced herself, but now she was the one with the goofy smile.

As everything settled down, Diana stretched out on his couch, silently deciding the day ended very nicely. Clark's apartment always felt like home to her, and the droning of the TV lulled her to sleep. By the Clark came out of his shower, Diana was fast asleep.

He couldn't help but smile at seeing such a powerful woman curled up on his couch like a little child. He gently picked her up and tried to walk her to his bed. He flinched as each step made noise on the wooden floor. He did not want to wake her up. Eventually, he made it to the bed and successfully pulled the covers over her.

He grabbed a few blankets from his closet and went to sleep on the couch.

Once he settled on the couch he saw the keys she left on the table and he decided he wanted her to keep them just in case. Also, he secretly hoped it would encourage her to come over more. Clark fell asleep on thoughts of how the day had ended quite nicely.


	2. Prequel: Part 2

"You're late." Diana looked upset. Her eyebrows scrunched in the bright Metropolis sun.

"I know—I'm so sorry." Clark looked tired and bruised and beaten. Nervous at seeing Diana angry he tried to not say something dumb and kept a safe distance away.

They were meeting in a quiet park. It was rather undiscovered and always quiet and empty, the perfect place for two superheroes to meet and talk.

Her face turned into a smile, "Lucky for you I was late as well. I got here approximately two minutes ago. I was just messing with you. Let's go get ice cream!"

Both of them walked up to the ice cream truck excitedly. It was a hot day, and Diana thought it was perfect for ice cream. Diana got some complicated triple chocolate swirl and Clark ordered a simple strawberry.

They chose to eat their ice cream at a bench under a tree a safe distance away from the ice cream cart vendor. Its long and spindly branches stretched shadows on both of their faces. Right across from the bench was a small TV mounted on the side of the ice cream truck. The TV played the local news station. Clark and Diana were never too far from a news station.

Clark sat on the side against the tree, Diana slipped her shoes off and sat cross legged on the side opposite of him. The TV was to her back.

The news anchor popped on the screen from a commercial break "_We have just got footage of Superman fighting a robot of unknown origin. Reports claim the robot was seen attacking people of Metropolis and Superman was there in moments to neutralize the threat. However, the battle took a somewhat comical turn lending it to become viral. We will be back with more." _

Clark practically spit ice cream all over the bench.

Turning to watch the TV Diana gushed, "It seems your battle has become popular amongst people of the internet."

Clark sighed, "Yeah, but you know, I'm really hot here, can we just finish this at your apartment?"

"Right, because your biggest weakness is 80 degree weather," Diana smiled as she bit into her ice cream, "I think you don't want me to see the video."

Clark sighed, "Yeah, I don't so let's go!"

"Well now I really want to see it." She planted her feet firmly into the ground under the park bench.

"I saw that coming." Clark gave up quickly and just went back to eating his ice cream. "I hear the video everywhere, it's driving me crazy. As if Superman needs more bad press."

"What did _Superman_ do?" Diana asked, her eyes trained on the TV's advertisement for "frozen yogurt" (she made a mental note to ask Clark about that later).

There was silence and then, "When you're making fun of me just remember I'm the one who cooks the amazing dinners." Clark said.

"I will take it in consideration." Diana laughed, but was genuinely concerned at what happened to Clark that made this video so popular.

The news channel came back from the break, and the news reporter spoke.

"_A little background for our viewers. Our channel had a news camera set on the floor of the scene to catch the fight. And what you see is the robot on the floor knocked out after the fight with Superman. And Superman seems to be—get this— checking the time on the clock tower and fixing his watch—we can't make this stuff up—suddenly this robot gets back up and slams Superman to the floor where our cameras were. And here is the reason the video went viral."_

The news show clipped to Superman disabling the robot with a strong punch to its head. But right afterwards he pulled a broken watch off his wrist and murmured, _"Shit man—just got this watch."_

The curse word was censored by the station, and Diana tried her best to keep a neutral expression.

"Are you okay? You know that large, noisy robot's "sneak attack" looked like it hurt."

"Fine. Thanks." He rolled his eyes at her jab at him. "I I was so distracted because I didn't want to be late to this by the way."

After that jab Diana quietly ate her ice cream with a small smirk, which made Clark very suspicious.

"What? That's it? Not going to make fun of my cussing on international television, breaking the watch Bruce gave me, getting beat up by a weak robot, not seeing the camera?"

"Well I'm trying to save some content for later on." Diana seemed proud of her response.

Really, that was not the reason; she could tell by the Clark spoke that this really did upset him. There was a line she never crossed with him, and the line was making fun of something genuinely upsetting.

As a masterful diplomat she changed the topic, "I promise you it's not that big of a deal Clark. But, I have a more pressing question, why do you always eat plain flavors in ice cream?"

"The simple ones are the best made."

"I don't think so. This one I'm having is really good."

"I promise you the strawberry is better." He offered her a spoon of it and she defiantly took a bite of it.

"It's okay. I guess. " She scrunched her nose up as if it tasted bad. But she quickly finished her ice cream and then stared at Clark's hungrily.

"Admit you liked it more and the rest is yours." He smiled knowing that Diana hated being wrong.

She mumbled, "I liked it better," and quickly snatched the remaining ice cream from Clark.

Clark leaned back on the bench taking in the beautiful park and the way the nice breeze made all the trees shuffle. He wished he could feel the breeze across his skin; maybe even feel heat on a typical hot day.

Diana sat across from him, her hair flowing in the wind. He watched her struggle to eat ice cream as the wind blew her hair into the ice cream comically. She was his world. He would never tell her that, but he couldn't and didn't want to imagine his life without her. And he had her undivided attention tonight.

It was finally the day of his award ceremony. It started at 8pm, so they planned to meet for ice cream and he'd come back to pick her up at 5pm so there was no way they missed the awards. Right now it was noon; the sun right in the center of the sky bearing down on them.

Diana said, "You are lucky you have short hair." She laughed as her hair blew across her face for the twentieth time today.

"Both of us have the rest of the day off right?" Clark said, his mind focused on the award ceremony later.

"Yes, I do. I've practiced the story of 'Diana Prince' and I have all my papers. I was thinking of colored contacts."

"I think that could help, but that means you are going to have keep up with the contacts."

"I mean hanging out like this is no big deal, but they will have cameras there and I just don't want anyone to draw the connection." Diana stated simply, "So I think I will."

"You'd be amazed at how people don't think twice about it. It's just they don't see as real people. You can tell by the fact that a video of me saying a bad word has 50 million views in like 20 minutes." Clark was obviously upset.

"You are allowed to make mistakes Clark, and you being upset over a broken watch is ridiculous." She didn't like seeing him upset, especially knowing this was supposed to be one of the most exciting days of his life.

"You can't hear them talking."

"Focus on something else."

"Like what?"

"My eternal and never ending beauty." She laughed and took her last spoonful of ice cream.

" Always." He laughed as if it was a joke. "Just don't be late for the award tonight, we kept like a three hour failsafe but knowing us we will mess it up somehow."

"Hey, I told you my night is clear. Oh! Also, Bruce said he's coming. He just realized he was actually one of the sponsors and not going could ruin some of his deals. Obviously he will not talk to us much because the cameras follow him and we don't really need that attention."

"That's great! When do you think I should face him about the watch?"

"I'm sure he doesn't care much Clark. A few hundred is nothing to him."

"It's not a matter of the money Di, he gave it to me as a gift and I should have been more careful with it. I value every inch of respect and appreciation I get."

"I know you do, just don't let that damper your day today."

He gave her a sad smile as the footage of him cursing played again. "We should probably get going to get ready for tonight."

"Yeah." Diana agreed and after a moment of neither of them wanting to be the first to leave she spoke suddenly, "Thank you Clark."

"For what?"

"Just everything. All the dinners, the times you pulled me out of battle, the advice, for accepting me as me—just everything." Her genuine words stirred butterflies in Clark's stomach.

"Oh shush, I couldn't fit all the things you have done for me over the years in a 1,000 paged novel." He reached across and squeezed her hand.

"By the way, sorry about falling asleep at your place that day. It was unprofessional to say the least." She blurted the words out as an afterthought.

"Please, we passed a simply professional relationship years ago." The wording was awkward and Clark fumbled to fix it, "Umm, I just mean we've been really close… you know… like friends—just friends for a long time. You know you deserve it after all the times I was fast asleep during monitor duty and you did all the work." He flushed as the words fell out of his mouth in a jumbled and ugly mess.

Caught off guard Diana replied, "Just—umm thanks Clark. I really appreciate all of it. I look forward to our meeting tonight. I better head out."

"Yeah see you tonight." Still red in the face, Clark got up getting ready to leave.

Diana got up and threw her ice cream cups away, waved bye to Clark and headed off to an alley were she could change and fly home.

As she walked away she left with her heart feeling all warm and tingly. There was a little bounce in her step and she couldn't quite put her finger on why she always felt this way after talking to him.

That man was her best friend, a large, central part of her world. She would never tell him, but she couldn't imagine and didn't want to imagine life without him.

She turned back one last time to see him smiling and laughing to himself as he stood up against the tree. She, with her superior hearing, heard him say, "Oh Clark, what have you got yourself into with her?"


	3. Prequel: Part 3

He came to the back door of her apartment, three knocks, two beats in between them. Right on time, plenty of time to meet everyone and have a little fun before the actual event.

Diana only has one apartment which all her neighbors know harbors Wonder Woman. It's a small, simple place most would consider to be located in the bad part of town.

Most people assume Wonder Woman must live in her embassy in D.C. Yet, her closest friends know of her quiet little place in London. Clark suspects several people must've tried to tell the paparazzi of her living in London, but who would believe them? The unkept and cheap London apartment seemed illogical to all, including Clark.

He remembers asking her about it.

"_Diana, why here? Of all the places in the world?"_

"_What? You don't like it?" she looked amused at the question. _

"_No, it's nice, small, simple." It was furnished with elegant furniture from her island home. She _

_kept everything really neat and organized._

"_Well Clark Kent, I really like simple. The whole rich politician routine gets old really quickly. So refined and expensive you feel scared to touch anything, scratch a wall, or even sit in the wrong chair. Here I can take my shoes off and drop food all over everything. Of course I am blessed to have my privileges, but I'd rather that life I lived back on my island as a child." _

"_I'm glad one of your primary concerns in choosing a home is whether you can sloppily eat or not. I'm enjoying getting to know you, princess." _

That was the first time he called her that. Her response to the word was a pointed look Clark didn't immediately understand. She was seen as a princess her whole life, babied and treated as a child. To Clark, she was so much more, but he soon realized inside she worried she wasn't.

Being on the ground floor, her apartment had a small little patio door in the heavily forested unkept yard. In due time, she made her way to this door and quickly ushered Clark in. She looked stunning. Her long black dress hugged her curves and a simple pearl necklace was strung across her naturally tan skin. It was nothing similar to the bright Amazonian garb she wore in diplomatic meetings out of respect of her mother's traditions.

"Hi." She smiled while tucking her hair back into her updo.

"You look amazing." She looked clean and simple, and simple had a certain charm on her. It suited her well.

"As do you Clark. But do I look like Wonder Woman?" She had brown contacts in, a looser more casual aura, large chunky glasses, and lacked her signature red lipstick.

"No, I don't think anyone would draw the connection if you keep it low key, stay away from the cameras, and the more famous people and diplomats."

"I'm sorry, 'low key'? I'm not sure what that means." She invited him to the couch as she walked to the mirror in her bathroom.

"Just don't do anything that will catch attention." The phrase "low key" suddenly started to annoy Clark because he realized it made very little sense.

"So Lois is the only person who knows."

"Yes she knows I'm Superman and I'm sure she'd start asking questions so I had to tell her. However, her boyfriend, Jonathan, doesn't. She knows your story in as much detail as you do, you can trust her."

"Alright that's fine. Hey do you think you could grab my purse from my bedroom?" She called from the bathroom where she was putting on pearl earrings.

"Yup."

Pushing off of the sofa, he walked the four steps it took to reach her bedroom door. Clark pushed the door open and stopped in his tracks.

Her bedroom seemed like the remains someone would expect to come out of a tornado. The furniture was beaten and broken. Shards of glass were tossed all over the floor and shimmered like diamonds. The sheets were thrown haphazardly around the room and ripped in several places. Was that blood on the dresser?

Clark's heart sped up exponentially and he anxiously searched the apartment to find a thief or someone who could have caused the destruction. He found nothing which made him significantly more concerned.

"Diana!" He exclaimed, more concerned than frightened, whilst running to the bathroom.

She was calmly putting on her second pair of earrings, but when she saw Clark's expression she stiffened and her heart sped up.

"What? Clark what's wrong?"

"Your bedroom has been destroyed! Diana did someone break in? There's blood Diana!"

She let out a loud sigh, and her shoulders loosened, "I'm sorry I forgot about it. It's nothing. I just need to clean it up." She refused to make eye contact and finished putting her earring in.

"Diana, that's not nothing. What happened?"

She grudgingly mumbled, "Just, since becoming God of War… the nightmares have been a bit tough."

"Diana…you need to talk to someone. I'm sure one of the gods could help you. There has to be someone who can help."

She slammed her palms on her bathroom counter hanging her head low.

"NO there isn't Clark. I'm so tired of hearing that. So tired, please stop."

"Di…"

"Please stop Clark. You don't know what the anger feels like. You and I base everything we do on logic—on these lofty goals of equality. Most of these soldiers are so angry. They've been hurt for so long in so many ways, all they have is anger. Clark, can you imagine being in the mind of a man who enjoys killing, enjoys destroying, enjoys torturing?"

She'd never really spoken about how it is being god of war, and this sudden explosion of emotion took Clark by surprise, "No, Diana I can't imagine it, I'm really sorry you do."

She laughed in derision, "I thought I could change how people thought of war, and instead it's changing me."

"Diana, maybe we shouldn't go out tonight."

"Don't you dare Kal. This is the one night I can get away from everything Wonder Woman, and I really, really need that. Okay?" She pushed past him and grabbed her purse from her room and stood by the door ready to leave.

"Are you sure about this?" Clark was unsure and didn't move from the doorway in the bathroom.

"Yes. Clark, just don't think about it tonight okay. We can talk about it later, please just give me this night. You deserve a night focused on you and your achievements." She stepped out of the back door of her apartment and Clark followed, flicking the lights off as he left.

The award ceremony was in huge ball room type auditorium in London. Diana knew where it was and called a cab once they got on the street. Clark followed her into the cab. She whispered instructions to the cab driver and then leaned back on the seat.

"Are you excited or nervous?" She was smiling again. She was serious about dropping the subject of "God of War" completely.

"Nervous." He looked out of the window at all the people passing them on the streets, blurs.

"You don't need to be. I'm sure it's going to be fun! I really want to dance tonight."

"Well now I'm even more nervous." He looked her and tried to keep things light, but all he could think of is her trashing around her room every night filled with fear and anger.

"You're thinking about it." She remarked disappointedly.

"It's hard not to Diana. I don't want you to live that way. No one person can handle that—"

"I promised we'd talk about it Clark. Just not tonight, alright?" she sharply interjected.

"Okay," he was unsure about her promise.

"Okay? Pinky promise?" she asked.

"Okay. Yes, pinky promise."

"You smell really good." Diana abruptly told Clark.

She was going to speak again but then the cab driver spoke, his voice gruff from years of cigarettes, "I think you guys would make it faster by walking at this point." The whole street was filled with bumper to bumper traffic. Their cab was stalling.

"Clark, it's like a ten minute walk from here, so I think that would be fine."

"Alright." Both he and Diana reached out to pay for the cab ride.

"I got it Diana." He pushed his money further towards the cab driver, which the cab driver accepted eagerly. "You can keep the change," he smiled at the cab driver and got out.

Once he got out he saw that Diana gave him her money as well to keep as a tip. The cab driver rained thanks on her and told her she was a "nice lady" repeatedly.

"I hope he can buy something nice for himself." She said as she got out of the cab.

"With that kind of money I'm sure he will." Clark couldn't afford to hand out hundreds like that, "But remember keep your head low, try to walk past the cameras."

They reached the event in a matter of minutes and Clark and Diana speedily walked past the cameras and entered the building. Luckily, the cameras were occupied with a certain Bruce Wayne.

The event was very elegant. A large glass chandelier hung above the middle of the large dance floor and stage. All around the stage was a multitude of round tables decorated with simple center pieces and elegant tablecloth that seemed to melt onto the floor. Lights illuminated the entire place with a golden glow as it hit the chandelier. The stage was currently occupied by an orchestra, who was playing some classic songs to dance to. Waiters and servers busily hustled around the tables bringing snacks and drinks.

Upon walking in, Clark was stunned by the realization that this event was for him, in effect. He'd been to many high class affairs to report, but for the first time he would be the man sitting in the chair. He'd be honored even if he didn't win.

"Is Lois here yet?" Diana asked as she looked around curiously.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure at least! He scanned the room for her. He quickly found her with her boyfriend talking to a man Clark didn't recognize.

"Follow me." He took Diana's hand and led her to Lois as they weaved through people milling around and on the dance floor.

Lois stopped talking mid sentence when she saw them, "—Clark, Diana! Hi! Let me introduce you to these handsome men here."

One of the men had his arm wrapped around Lois' waist. He was a tall blonde man with green eyes. He was one of those people who always seemed to be casual and calm, even when wearing a neatly pressed suit. Lois introduced him eagerly, "This is my boyfriend Jonathan Carroll. Jon you know Clark, and this lucky woman here is his good _friend_ Diana Prince.

Diana, Clark, and Jonathan exchanged formalities.

The other man was standing beside Lois was a burly guy with a well defined face and bright blue eyes. His manner was more rigid, and he had a wonderful smile, Diana thought at least. He had blonde hair as well, noticeably an army cut.

By the time Lois introduced him, Diana was already in his mind, looking through his memories and times in war. As God of War, Diana knew all the soldiers. She hated invading his thoughts, but it was involuntary for the most part. Steve Trevor was a certainly a brave man in Diana's book.

Clark sensed something strange was going on and gently bumped Diana to knock her back to the conversation. "It's nice meeting you Mr. Trevor." Clark shook his hand. Diana missed Lois' introduction but the soldier reached out and kissed her hand, "You look stunning Ms. Prince."

"Please Mr. Trevor, call me Diana." She graciously flowed back into the conversation. She couldn't help but be intrigued by this man, he was nothing like the other soldiers she'd come across so far. Perhaps a little egotistical at times, but a good man in more ways than one.

"Mr. Trevor makes me sound like a grandpa, I'd be delighted if you called me Steve." He smiled, more to the beautiful raven haired woman than her male counterpart.

"Clark is a reporter with me, and Diana is a foreign correspondent for Wayne Industries." Lois added.

"Oh, Mr. Wayne was kind enough to honor me tonight at this event; he's a good friend of mine. A bit irresponsible and womanizing, but sometimes he lets his guard down and you can see his heart of gold. Also, may I just say you look stunning today, Diana?"

"Thank you, you look very dapper yourself." Her dazzling diplomatic smile stole the conversation.

"Well I'd love if you two would join our table here! I've known Lois since we were children, my father and her father were good friends."

"And now I'm seeing old Steve here being honored for his service tonight." Lois said. Jonathan stayed rather quiet by her side, but still very attentive. He looked as if he was making mental judgments on Lois' friends.

"Oh congratulations!" Diana said, smiling. "It's an incredible thing you soldiers do, putting your life on the line for the sake of others."

"Thank you, I appreciate that. We can drink to that." Steve turned and ordered a drink. "Does anyone else want something?"

Lois and her boyfriend ordered drinks.

While they talked to the waiter Diana turned to Clark, "Come on let's go dancing!"

"I'm not much of a dancer Di." He shrugged away from her, but Diana knew that wasn't the real Clark she knew.

"I'll make you look good." She laughed and dragged Clark onto the dance floor with her. "Excuse us," she said to the group, "Clark and I are going to dance for a little while."

"Go ahead" Lois laughed. "We are going to socialize a bit with Steve."

On the dance floor, the light reflected off the chandelier and left little jewels of light shining all over the floor. Other couples swooshed by Clark and Diana, entranced by the music.

The little pins in Diana's hair shone like little diamonds, and Clark realized he really liked her blue eyes now that he saw the contacts. The first song they danced to was slow, Clark had his arms around her waist and Diana had hers around his neck. He was nervously looking down at Diana's shoes, leaving enough room between the two of them for a whole other person.

"Don't be so nervous Clark. No one is going judge Clark for being a good dancer or for dancing with his best friend—well one of his best friends." She corrected herself as she made eye contact with Lois back at the table.

In a matter of seconds the song changed to a faster paced song. The dancing partners around Diana and Clark morphed from somewhat stationary couples to dynamic spinning and laughing lovebirds.

Diana was taken by surprise when Clark suddenly grabbed her and spun her quickly twice before pulling her into him again.

His body was shaking with laughter at her surprise, "I love this song." He exclaimed over the music. It was the instrumental track of Crazy in Love by Beyonce. Diana had never heard it before.

"You know Clark, I've never heard you sing." The song seemed to make Clark incredibly happy and he was finally becoming the man Diana loved sharing her life with.

"Oh yeah?" Clark pulled her close and whispered a comically high pitched version of the song.

She pushed him away playfully, "Sorry I had to ask."

She laughed as Clark spun her around to the tune of the song. The world around Clark and Diana become nothing more than blurred background noise as they surrendered themselves to the song and the jubilant crowd moving and breathing with the grace of angels gliding on the surface of clouds.

Meanwhile, Lois and Jonathan were enjoying drinks at the table waiting for Steve who had wandered off for some necessary diplomatic networking.

"_That's _the same Clark we had dinner with?" Jon questioned skeptically.

"Yes."

"It's like she brings someone completely different out of him."

"No, Jon, I think she brings the real guy out of his little shell."

"Always the journalist with your insightful views. How long did it take you to meet the real guy?" Jon asked bemused.

"In some ways I don't think I have, but probably a good 6 years. He's a strange guy, great at heart though. Trustworthy."

"I could see that. By the way Lois, for the hundredth time today, you look absolutely amazing. "

"Thanks, you going to show me off on the dance floor big guy?" She reached out and kissed him.

"Let's just tell Steve so we don't seem rude." Jon suggested.


	4. Prequel: Part 4

"I almost forgot to ask you, but can you come to dinner with me, Lois, and Jon tonight?"

"I'd love to, but right now I kind of want a drink." Diana said as Clark waltzed around the dance floor with her. The lights in the building dimmed as the time came closer to that of the award function.

"I don't think that's a good idea Diana, you are a sloppy drunk." Clark jested. They both knew Diana couldn't really get drunk under normal circumstances.

"Kidding. I'll be back. And before you insist to get it for yourself, know I insist to get it for you."

Clark left to find a waiter so he could order a drink. Diana stepped off the dance floor, thinking of how well each person played their role in the orchestra. She held great passion for people who completely involved themselves in what they did. She reveled in the joy on the violinist's face as she played her instrument. The world was full of beautiful things if one was willing to look.

From the corner of her eye Diana could see the army man, Steve Trevor, approaching with an easy look on his face, hands in pockets. "The violinist really seems to love what does she does." He laughed.

"Yes. She plays expertly." Diana said turning to face Steve.

"Would you mind dancing with me for a song?" Steve asked hesitantly, not really sure of her relationship with the reporter. He starkly remembered Lois saying "his good _friend_ Diana Prince".

"Oh, well Clark is getting me a drink right now, but why not for a song?"

Steve smiled, genuinely happy. He held her hand in his and put his other around her waist, loosely in waltz position. An experienced dancer, he gently led her in the waltz. The soft music set the basis for what could be a nice conversation. Diana was incredibly surprised by Steve's confidence, but wondered if that would have been different if he knew she was wonder woman.

"What's it like being a foreign correspondent?" Steve questioned.

Diana tried to focus her attention on Steve for the moment, "It's interesting, I like meeting new people, but the nuisances of upper class life can get tiresome. What about you? I'm sure you face situations similar to mine as a high ranking soldier."

"That's a funny thing, you know. Fighting on the field, there is always so much death, it makes everything we do seem a little bit insignificant. There are real, innocent people dying in the battle between giant egotistical countries and nameless billionaires. And knowing that makes it tough to smile and sip chardonnay with the very people treating thousands of others like disposables."

The maturity and insight Steve spoke with made Diana want to converse further. "I couldn't imagine being a soldier, always having to take orders."

"Well nowadays I usually make the orders, doesn't make it any easier though. It's difficult to keep sane when you realize each death is a person with a whole lifetime full of memories. Favorite foods, favorite songs," Steve stopped talking mid thought, "—I'm sorry this subject matter certainly isn't appropriate for one of our first conversations. "

"Oh no, I find it refreshing to meet someone willing to talk about real problems. I appreciate honesty."

Steve opened his mouth as if to speak, and then suddenly he was shoved to the ground.

Two indignant men screamed over each other throwing violent punches back and forth as they barreled through the dozens of people dancing. The music sharply stopped playing and a frazzled woman came from the crowd and tried to pull the men apart before being punched sharply in the face. The sound of a bone breaking resonated in Diana and angered her. The woman was now on the floor touching her bloody face in panic.

Diana didn't understand the context of the meaningless violence, but the fight left a bad taste in mouth. Even here she couldn't escape to violence. Diana pushed her way through the gawking crowd that formed in seconds and ran to the woman's aid. Meanwhile Steve tried to keep the two men apart. When Diana looked up to Steve, his lip was swollen and bleeding onto the floor.

The woman on the floor was desperately wailing "Make them stop please. Make them stop." The woman had a broken nose, maybe more. Her sharp screams contrasted the booming insults being flung between the two men.

Now, realizing she couldn't just act like Wonder Woman and fly the woman to the emergency room, Diana struggled with trying to decide how a normal person would go about this conflict.

"Someone call 911." Diana screamed to the large crowd of onlookers. Diana tried to apply pressure to the wound of the woman to staunch the flow of blood. Clark, placing Diana's drink on the closest table, had joined and restrained one man while Steve got the other. The struggle only lasted a few minutes, but to Diana it seemed to last hours. She couldn't deny the feeling in the back of her head telling her that this was related to her. She attracted war.

Security guards finally showed up and wrangled the two arguing men out of the building. It was terrifying how even as being dragged out, the two men sustained their argument, struggling to scream insults over the burly security men.

"What happened?" Clark asked to no one in particular.

"I'm not sure." Diana smiled attempting to support the woman on the floor, now crying. "It's over now. It's okay, but Steve are you okay?"

Steve brushed his hand across his lip and used his tongue to suck up the blood, "Probably the third time this week I busted my lip. I'm fine, Clark?"

"I'm fine." Clark stated as he scanned Diana making sure she was unhurt. Clark had missed the start of the fight and was confused as to why Diana had a guilt ridden expression. He pieced it together quickly; she probably thought the fight broke out because the men were so close to the God of War.

"Thank you guys so much. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have cheated on him. I got us all in this mess. I'm so sorry." Her tear filled apology made all of them feel bad. The woman continued sobbing in a once pearly white dress on the floor. She leaned on Diana who was still applying pressure to her wounds.

"No matter what you did, it doesn't constitute the reaction those men had. Do not burden yourself with fault." Diana stated over the sound of police sirens.

Another group of security came by and helped the woman up while forcing the crowd to disperse.

One of the guards spoke directly to Diana, "Thank you ma'am, but we got it from here. The paramedics are here." Before Diana could insist on helping the woman to the door the security guard sharply turned and supported the woman as she walked towards the paramedics outside.

The sound of hushed whispers reigned in the building. After a few minutes of Diana trying to judge if she got blood on her dress or face, a speaker came over head. A commanding yet elegant voice spoke, "Please take your seats, the award functions will start soon. We ask that the three people who helped in that—altercation come up stage momentarily. We want everyone to know that altercation has been resolved and we will be moving on with the program as scheduled."

Diana looked at Clark who shrugged. The three of them made their way to the stage and then were directed backstage. There stood two police officers, probably there to prevent the type of fight that just broke out.

"We are trying to put together what happened back there, and wanted to ask what you knew."

"I was just dancing with her when the two guys slammed into me. I tried to pull them apart, and that's basically it." Steve stated while fixing his tie.

Clark raised his eyebrows at Diana, he didn't realize she had been dancing with Steve. A wave of jealousy unexpectedly crashed into him, and Clark harshly realized that Diana was not only his. Diana did not respond to his look of surprise which frustrated him further.

"She told me something about cheating on one of them. I think the guy on the left broke her nose. And that is the extent of my knowledge." Diana looked tired by the whole process, more emotionally drained than physically.

Clark threw his hands up in the air, "Well, I just came in later and held a guy back. The men seemed keen to insult each other, that's for sure."

"Alright, that's what we picked up from what they have told us as well. We just wanted to make sure the stories matched up. Thank you guys for your time, feel free to return to your seats, have a good day." The officer scribbled down a note hurriedly and left.

Clark led them out, back towards the table and Diana fell back with Steve.

"Our dance ended a bit short." Steve said.

"It seems so." Diana sighed.

"We could finish it at the after-party Bruce is throwing me. Of course anyone you wish to come with you can. You being there would make it a lot nicer." He gave her a heartfelt smile.

Clark frowned; Diana was being hit on by a nationally recognized soldier being thrown a party by a billionaire. He felt inadequate and frustrated at the fact that he had no right to be so jealous and angry at her interactions with Steve.

"Oh—well I think Clark and our little group had dinner plans. I'm so sorry." She realized Steve was asking her out essentially. But all Diana could focus on was Clark uneasily walking quickly in front of them. She was conflicted about how she felt about Steve. Certainly he was a nice man, but when Diana thinks of the happiest moments of her life she seems to note that most of them involve a certain goofy reporter.

"Oh right, I remember Lois telling me about the reservations now. I completely understand. Maybe I'll see you sometime later?" Steve's question had clear intentions.

At the moment this vital question was asked, Lois came within hearing distance and exclaimed, "Steve couldn't you stop the heroism for a day?"

Steve sighed, realizing the moment he had with Diana was lost; he took a seat without pressing the question further. "Guess not. Clark and Diana were just as amazing though. I'm going to go clean up in the restroom really quickly."

Diana decided to do the same and went to the bathroom and washed the blood on her hands in the sink, luckily nothing got on her dress. She looked at herself in the mirror, and struggled to accept that no one had noticed she was Wonder Woman yet. She sighed and took a second to collect herself before leaving the restroom. This night was not what it was supposed to be, with Clark finding her bedroom in disarray and the fight.

When she returned, Clark smiled and tried to steal Diana's attention so Steve couldn't get another chance to ask her out. Somewhere inside Clark knew this game he was playing was incredibly childish and nonsensical, but his jealously overpowered this common sense.

"My award section is the last one." Clark said, "You can tell when it's coming because most people are asleep by then."

Diana laughed. She looked around the circular table. To her right was Steve, Clark to her left. Across from her were Lois and Jon. There were three empty chairs.

"Well I have made it my personal mission to make sure you are awake and don't miss your award."

"What a noble mission Di." He sighed, "I read a lot of the pieces yesterday and there is no way I'm winning. Lois has good chances though."

"Clark, if you are talking yourself down right now I'm going to hit you." Lois said.

"I second Lois' view." Diana liked Lois a lot.

Clark's knee was bouncing nervously and he was drumming his fingers across the table.

"You are a mess Clark Kent. Also, where is my drink?" Diana grabbed his hand to stop his drumming.

"Sitting on some table somewhere, probably consumed by some other person." He laughed when he realized that he had forgotten it.

"I knew I should've gotten it myself." She joked.

"I'll get another one for you." He got up, but Diana pulled him back down.

"No not now. Now I just want you to sit with me and enjoy this event."

"No promises." He joked.

Beside her, Diana heard Steve stand up. "Hey man! How have you been?"

Bruce Wayne walked up to their table with two women by his side. "Splendid actually. Have you tried this wine yet Steve? It's amazing. Here I'll order you one."

"No need Bruce, I think I've had enough for tonight."

"No I insist." Bruce slurred his words slightly and gestured to a waiter who hurriedly rushed to bring the great Mr. Wayne what he wanted.

"Well if you insist. You should join us Bruce, there is enough space for the three of you."

"Three?" Bruce looked around confused. "Oh yeah these ladies are Katie and Lizzie. How rude of me."

The shorter brunette corrected him, annoyed, "Sarah."

"Sorry, Lizzie and Sarah. I've been drinking since morning, so joining you may be the best idea I've had all day." He pulled the chairs out for his women and sat down. He waved off the body guards lurking behind him.

Diana and Clark looked at each other and laughed at Bruce's act. He'd mastered it, no one would doubt for a second he was a spoiled billionaire with nothing much to his life besides parties.

Steve spoke, "Diana here works for you." He pointed to make it clear he wasn't talking about Lois.

"I haven't met her before; I'd remember a pretty face like that. Nice to meet you Diana, what do you work as?" Bruce said.

"Something like a foreign correspondent, reporting on your businesses aboard."

"Ah, how many languages do you speak?"

"10 fluently."

"Interesting, I assume you are here for Mr. Kent here. I've worked with Mr. Kent before, excellent reporter."

"Yes. I think he's excellent as well." She beamed at Clark who was leaning back in his chair enjoying Bruce's act.

Steve pointed, "By the way, that's Lois, my friend, and her boyfriend Jon."

After they exchanged decent introductions (Lois already knowing Bruce as Batman) Bruce spoke, "By the way, what happened with the paramedics and the fighting? My bodyguards just swarmed me and I missed all the fun."

Steve spoke, "I think the woman cheated and then the two guys got fussy."

"Come on Steve, being your wingman gets so much harder when you have a giant bruise on your lip. Speaking of heroics, you guys see the Superman video yet?"

Lois leaned in now, feigning interest in hopes of making Clark uncomfortable, "I haven't!"

Clark rolled his eyes, understanding it was the video of him cussing. "I did, but hey, at least he's not running around in a bat suit yet." Clark pointed his jab at Bruce.

Bruce gave him a sour expression that lasted a second at most. Bruce pulled up the video on his phone for Lois to watch.

"Yeah I understand his pain, that watch is limited edition, expensive." Bruce added as Lois laughed at the video. His words were obviously pointed at Clark. Clark stayed silent, the darkness of the room made it so no one could see him redden or his sour expression.

Diana poked Clark's ribs and whispered, "I don't think you need to tell him about the watch now."

Clark gave Diana an angry look.

At that moment a speaker came up on stage. "Everyone please be seated, we are starting the award ceremony." At this Clark let out a whispy breath; Diana reached out and squeezed his hand. Across the table Lois and Jon kissed.

The award ceremony did stretch long. Steve was probably on his ninth drink, Lois did not win her category, Clark wasn't any less nervous, but it was finally his category.

"Can't you just read what's in the envelope?" Diana whispered to Clark.

"I can, but I didn't think about doing it until now. You are not helping."

"Alright, so you want it to be a surprise?"

"I've waited this long might as well wait a few more seconds."

"To each his own." Diana giggled quietly and noted how all the eyes on their table focused on Clark.

"And the winner is—" the speaker took a break, "Laurence Hill!" The winner jumped up from the table beside them and ran up to accept his award.

Clark was clapping, "I liked his piece, I'm glad he won out of the others."

"Not disappointed?" Diana asked quietly over the winner's thorough list of thanks.

"Always next time, I guess." He shrugged and pretended to be focused on the winner's speech.

Right after that announcement, the speakers finished out with thanks which involved calling Bruce Wayne on stage (who notably thanked no one and barely formed coherent sentences). Quickly after that, there was a moment for Steve, the honored guest, where the speakers thanked him for his service. The lights went up and just like that, the event was over. People shuffled out the door, loud and jubilant winners chatted eagerly but perhaps louder was the somber silence of all those who lost, especially at Clark's table.

"Well that sucked, on to dinner then?" Lois stated as she grabbed her belongings.

"Oh come on, that wasn't terrible. Plus dinner is going to be amazing." Jon spoke to Lois.

"Well Steve, have fun at your party with the billionaire. Hope to see you again sometime soon." Lois stated sourly.

Steve yawned, "I'm getting to old for this." He walked over to Lois and hugged her goodbye and shook Jon's hand. He also walked over to Clark and shook his hand, "She's really special man." He whispered to Clark, slightly inebriated as he nodded in Diana's direction. Clark didn't know how to react and he just smiled.

Then he faced Diana, "The offer still stands for if you ever want to finish that dance with me." He handed her his phone number, and hugged her before leaving to catch up with Bruce. Clark watched Diana fold it and put it away.

Bruce was already gone, not saying any goodbyes, walking towards the back exit with his women and a group of men. Typical.

"I actually ordered a limo to pick us up in five minutes. It's our little surprise for you guys. We thought it would be fun." Jon said.

"Oh that sounds fun, thank you Jon." The entire group had a somber feeling and Diana and Jon both were struggling to keep the conversation uplifting.

"You know I'm going to go out to one of the balconies here for a second. I'll see you guys up front." Clark said.

"And I'll stay back with him." Diana said as she looked at Clark, concerned.

"Sure. It'll be here soon though." Jon held Lois' hand and started to lead her out.

Clark walked ahead of Diana to a balcony. The night was beautiful. The full moon lit up the sky and stars shone brightly. The balcony overlooked a beautiful garden with a fountain the middle. Purple and yellow flowers dotted the entire garden and left a nice smell in the air. The sound of water overpowered all the cars and loud voices.

"I really thought this was the one Diana." He finally let his disappointment show.

"Oh Clark, it's still beautiful and well written in more ways than one. Perhaps your story wasn't as relatable; most people haven't felt that kind of pain. Either way, you are still exceptional. And don't forget all the fun we had dancing, talking with Bruce, and I'm sure more fun will follow at dinner tonight."

"You don't have to fake that smile for me. I know the fight really upset you. It really wasn't your fault though."

"It did upset me, but I'm not faking Clark. I am really, very glad I came here today with you." She smiled wider and forced him to look at her, "Listen to me, you are exceptional."

"You are the best friend I could ask for in the whole entire world. I mean that."

Diana let that sit in the air for a while as the sound of cars and excited voices from the street invaded what felt like their private moment in the garden. Diana remembered Clark's surprise at hearing she danced with Steve, his irritation the rest of the time, was that jealousy? Clark was looking out over the garden.

"Just friend?" Clark heard her heart speed up. Lost in all the emotions of that moment, he reverted to a joke.

"Well I guess you'd have to kiss me for me to decide." Before Clark could laugh to accentuate the fact that it was a joke, she reached out and kissed him.

Her lips were soft and she smelled heavenly. Her hands gently caressed his face, but Clark was taken by surprise. He stiffened unsure of what to do. His brain was on fire, and he wasn't sure how a man is supposed to react to being kissed by the most beautiful woman in the world. The soft fabric of her dress rubbed against his limp arms and he was suddenly short of breath.

Diana realized Clark wasn't moving, "Oh my gods, you were kidding. Weren't you?" Diana knew he was joking somewhere inside. After all these years of things being unsaid, she just didn't care anymore. All she could think about is the dancing, the ice cream, the tacos. Him.

Clark just looked at her, her beautiful face. That kiss ended too soon. He imagined just reaching out and kissing her, telling her he loved her. But in his mind there were so many things that could go wrong after that point. He just stared at her. It broke his heart to know that Diana liked him past friendship. They were a disaster waiting to happen, anyone could tell them that. If they broke up, he would lose the only thing keeping him sane, he couldn't risk that.

Silence was the only answer Diana needed, and she felt like a fool. She shouldn't have done that, sure her and Clark's friendship was complicated, but it worked. And now she felt tears forming in her eyes as she realized she had really messed with that complex balance. She feared losing him as a friend; she feared that he didn't share her feelings.

Lois walked in and instantly picked up on the tension in the air, "Hey guys…um…the limo is here."

Diana wore a smile like a mask and said, "Perfect." She tore her eyes from Clark, and left him at the balcony as she followed Lois.

**AN: I just want to thank everyone who has commented and favorited and followed. You are all amazing. Sorry for my terrible writing, but thanks for reading it!**


	5. Prequel: Part 5

The limo took off trying to navigate incredibly packed traffic. Clark was sandwiched between an indignant Lois and deadly quiet Diana.

"The event was very well planned. Didn't you think Diana?" Jonathan offered desperately, disliking the heavy tension in the air.

For a split second Diana only offered solemn silence, but her persona kicked in and Clark saw her face morph into a disturbing mask made of a single bright smile. The ones who knew her like Clark would notice the dead eyes.

She talked over Clark as if he weren't there. "It was wonderful, stunning and beautiful."

After this sentence Clark was essentially deaf to the conversation. All he could see was the way Diana was turned slightly away from him; her wild eyes were determined to lock onto anything besides him. Her hands were folded neatly, her shoulders stiff and rigid. It was her flight response. Nice comments, perfect posture/grace, and a smile too big to be real.

"I think my favorite table piece was the lilies in the vase with pebbles." Diana regurgitated the words sounding overly excited to hide her indifference.

"Me too." Realizing the conversation was doing nothing for anyone's mood Jonathan decided to face the problem head on. "Now come on now Lois, don't be so down."

Lois took a deep breath and released her tension, "You're right dear. But if you want me to be in a better mood it's going to take a lot of food." She scowled comically.

Jonathan smiled at seeing Lois' opening up again. "That can be arranged." The two then started talking and joking about the other articles while Jonathan enjoyed the comforts of the limo.

Diana offered no such kind words to Clark, and within a few more painful minutes, they'd made it to the restaurant. Just as everyone stepped out of the limo, Clark got a phone call from the one and only Bruce Wayne.

"Hey guys, I have to take this really quick, I'll be right in." Clark spoke hastily fearing a league emergency.

Diana surmised the call was from Bruce from the tinge of rush in Clark's voice, but her face offered no acknowledgement of what Clark said. Clark'd seen her angry, broken, lost, but never this. He didn't know what this was. Tired maybe, just tired of going through the motions, having to hide truth behind smiles. Clark ran to the side of the restaurant where no one could hear him and picked the phone's pressing ring.

"Clark."

"Bruce?"

"How's the fancy dinner?"

"Not started, but how'd you hear?" Clark sighed at seeing the rest of the group go inside the restaurant.

"Always do. You sound upset Boy Scout. Don't let what happened get to you. It'll all work out in time." Bruce tried his best to use compassion in his voice. He worried Clark may have taken his award loss badly.

However, Clark's mind immediately assumed Bruce was referring to the kiss with Diana. With a mix of anger and confusion he blurted, "Alright, how the _hell _did you know about _this?_"

"I was there when you didn't get the award Clark." Bruce sighed, "Clark, you know I'm the one who needs to pretend to be drunk."

"Oh yeah the award. Yeah it'll work out."

"What were you talking about?" Bruce grew serious.

And now Clark was caught. There were seconds of silence as Clark tried to pull up something else but he knew no ruse would really work with Bruce.

He offered the first thing on the top of his head, "I was talking about the award too."

"You said, 'oh yeah the award' like it was an afterthought."

A sickening silence then, "Why'd you call Bruce?" Clark changed topics, concise and deliberate with the fact that he didn't want to talk about his problems anymore.

"How's Diana? You were acting weird with her at the table. She was acting weirder, if possible, after the fist fight."

Again a hesitant silence and finally, "Why'd you call Bruce?"

"Oh, so the problem has something to do with Diana?"

"I'm going to hang up if you don't tell me what the emergency is."

Now there was silence on Bruce's side, "I just wanted to make sure Superman hadn't gone on a crazy rampage; you know he doesn't need more bad press."

Clark knew this meant that Bruce was calling to see how Clark was holding up after the loss at the award ceremony.

"Seems like Bruce Wayne is always looking out for the public. It's okay to admit you care about your friends Bruce; thanks for caring."

Bruce just offered some guttural annoyed sound and then, "I'll see you around." The phone clicked as Bruce hung up.

By the time Clark turned to go back inside he saw Diana despondently stomping out of the restaurant.

"Diana! Where are you going?"

She turned to him finally deciding him worthy of words, "Home, I just have a really bad headache."

He laughed, "Right because headaches are your big weakness. Listen, can I just talk to you? I know everything is really complicated right now but I just need to talk to you."

"Just let me go home Clark."

"I'm not letting you go anywhere this upset."

Clark could be stubborn when he wanted and Diana knew this. She hesitantly offered, "I _want_ to go home Clark."

There was an aspect of desperation he heard in her voice that almost broke Clark into tears. Instead he gently pulled her to the side where no one could hear the two; she offered little fight. He doubted that she was even present in this moment.

"Listen to me, Diana, you are one of the only things that matter to me in this world." The words set heavy in the air and Clark was afraid to tell her more. His hands trembled like leaves in the wind.

He'd waited so long; this moment was something he'd imagined in his head over and over again. Finally the words were out there in the world, floating in the air ready to do their damage.

For the first time since the patio she made eye contact with him.

"Clark." She had more words to offer but he cut her off.

His words were rushed yet powerful. "At the patio what happened was just me being scared. That's all it was. Diana you have to understand when we were fighting Zod, he pushed me into the ground. There was a kind of rage in his eyes I hope to never see again, and he screams, 'You love her, don't you? I ensure she will die in the most painful way imaginable, perhaps one limb at a time'. Diana, I wish I could get him saying that out of my head, I wish I could get all of their threats out of my head but I just imagine you getting hurt. I torture myself knowing I'd never be able to live with knowing you hurt because of me. If we were closer more people would know, more people would want to hurt you."

Clark's words were so frantic and from a place so real for him Diana was at a loss of words for a few seconds, "Clark, people like that are going to want to hurt anyone they can."

Both of their eyes were filling with emotion long restrained.

Clark sighs, "I know, but it's the fact they want to hurt you just because you know me that keeps me up at night. Zod's voice, it was so angry—it was one of the only times I was truly afraid in my life. Diana, I don't back down easy but when it comes to the thought of losing you just because I wanted a relationship—"

Diana snapped, "Do you think I don't have those moments Clark? When they send you off on those missions, I just never know if I'll actually see you again. I understand that a relationship with you makes it easier to lose you—"

She stops and caresses his face, offering a light smile, "Maybe we can steal moments. We give our entire lives to this cause. To helping people and fighting and speaking; we can steal moments all for ourselves."

Both of their faces were in tight smiles. Smiles stretched across their faces taut as if too keep their words inside. It was almost as if they feared that a small crack in their smiles would lead to an outpour of word's whose intensity they feared.

Inside they knew one thing; their relationship was too real, too intense to fit into stolen moments. And now it seemed they were back to step one. Their love was something to marvel in, it went past lust, it went past being best friends; it was a force all in its own.

"I'm sorry I didn't say this sooner. But I'm terrified of losing you Diana. If I lost you, I'd find a way to fix. I'd have to go back in time; I'd have to get you back."

Almost silently she offered, "I'm scared of losing you too." She laid her head against his chest and they shared an embrace, perhaps the first embrace of their lives where feelings floated in the air, open, heavy and explosive. "But our fear founded in love is the very thing that pushes us apart Clark."

More words didn't need to be spoken. They both were running through the same questions.

What is there to do when you love someone but can't act upon it? What is there to do when you fear losing the only good thing in your life? What is there to do when you fear you can't protect the one you love, when you fear not being enough?

But true to the lives of superheroes, their moment was ripped and soiled by the cacophony of destruction just a few blocks away.

"Let's just get this one over with." Clark rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles. "Do you think if we print out schedules, they'd be better about when they attack?" Diana gave a small laugh and Clark felt an odd sense of reassurance.

**AN: Thank you guys for all the comments! I'd like to continue, and this chapter really just acts as a transition into the bigger story and sets where they are in their relationship. This is really just a piece for fun. I'm nowhere near a professional writer or even really know what I'm doing so thank you for your patience and kind words. **


	6. Chapter 1

**AN: So, I finally got this account back and I deleted the old account and got my chapter added back here where it belongs! I am so sorry it took so long for me to get this account back! But here is an update! Love writing thank you for all the comments they make my day. I am sorry for all the confusion, the old place where this was posted was deleted. **

**Where we last left off: Superman and Wonder Woman attend Clark's journalism award ceremony together. There was tension between Wonder Woman and Clark due to her strenuous new job as God of War and the fact that Clark and Diana have been very close as of late. To add to this pressure, Diana is thrown off by a fight that breaks out at the awards and Clark eyes Steve, the celebrated army brat hitting on Diana. The two heroes eventually calm down enough to have a heart to heart, but not before chaos breaks out in the city. **

* * *

Clark and Diana retreated further into the alleyways, quickly ditching their clothes for costumes. Diana was wearing her armor under her dress, and Clark simply pushed on his chest and his clothes quickly morphed into his Kryptonian garb. Diana removed her contacts and tossed them aside. The sound of trouble downtown grew louder as cars ran into each other setting off strident alarms. The sound of heavy artillery reigned with such intensity the ground started to vibrate, and blood curdling screams got flooded out by the war cries of the firing machines.

"How is the military already on this? Blonde-army-guy from the awards is already there in full body armor." Clark said, using his x-ray powers to look through the buildings between them and the fight.

"Steve, I know you remember his name Clark." Diana rolled her eyes frustrated with Clark's childish behavior. "But also, fair question. How _did _the military know this was occurring before the league?"

Clark offered no answer and Diana tapped her ear piece. She heard nothing, meaning the attack was still undetected by the league. Diana took a moment to ponder but then launched straight into the sky towards the fighting; Clark followed right beside her.

"We should call this in." Diana screamed over the air whipping past them.

"Let's see if we can handle it. I just saw one bad guy—big and ugly but one." Clark screamed back as wind forced hair into his eyes.

There might have just been one person, but Diana was taken aback by the sight in front of her when they arrived; it was a daunting scene. Giant armored army tanks were pouring in from the streets, forming a circle around a gigantic grey skinned man. The man seemed like the physical embodiment of the idea of a biker-boy from hell. The man's long coal black hair swelled and fell over his rippling muscles. Perhaps most notable were his blood shot red eyes, which stood in great contrast to his joyous, easy-going white smile. He floated on a levitating board with a giant gun in tow, firing haphazardly. His head snapped in the direction of Clark and Diana when they arrived on the scene. His smile got larger, creasing the ghoulish skin near his eyes. Diana looked to Clark as if to say "_this guy is crazy_" and Clark raised his eyebrows as if to say "_oh hell yeah he is_".

The monstrous man laughed easily, "Eyy looks like the two clowns I needed decided to offer themselves up. Must be my birthday, minus the strippers."

Steve popped his head out from one of the tanks and screamed viciously at Superman and Wonder Woman, "Get out of here. Both of you get out of here now! He wants you two! Go!"

Diana stared down confused at what the basis of Steve's demands could be. But she had little time to process what was happening.

"Oh shut him up will ya? Ya know never mind, Lobo gotcha covered." The grey man, Lobo, moved quickly and shot a red laser out. It hit Steve square in the chest.

Steve went catapulting backwards, about to smash against a building; Diana followed her natural instinct to save people and swooped in to broke his fall. The red laser had also started a fire in Steve's tank; Clark flew in, painstakingly taking the army personnel out while simultaneously extinguishing the fire. Shots rained down on Lobo from the tanks all around but nothing had any effect on Lobo's skin. Civilians scattered and screamed trying to avoid getting stuck in the crossfire. Lobo rolled his neck, and manically shot at his attackers blindly. Tanks lit up in large explosions all around the block and the sound sent out shock-waves that caused glass on nearby buildings to shatter.

"I need back-up." Clark screamed into his comm-link, already struggling with saving the people in and around the one tank.

"Heh heh, don't bother Mr. Blue 'n Red— I already got what I need." Lobo laughed and paused his shooting at others to face Diana.

Lobo slammed a button on the gun and a green laser beamed out. Diana tried to block it with her bracers but the laser went straight through them and her entire body. Clark gasped, surprised that the bracers weren't enough. Diana's body became the greenish hue of the laser and she looked down at her hands to see them slowly dissolving as if she were made of grains of sand. Beside her, she heard Steve gasp and turned to see half of his face dissolved in the same manner.

"Hmmph, looks like I got blondie too." Lobo shrugged looking at the two in the distance.

Everything was going in slow motion in Clark's mind. He immediately stopped what he was doing and launched over to Diana, but it was too late. He tried to grab at her but he went straight through her.

"Diana, Diana. Stay with me. Can you hear me? Are you in pain?" His cries were desperate but Diana was deaf to his words. It was as if she didn't even see Clark there. Clark watched red eyed and viciously angry as Diana faded to nothing in front of his very eyes.

A green laser shot towards Clark but he quickly moved from the line of fire. "Oh that's not going to work again." Clark rammed into Lobo, pulling him into the air along with his laser gun.

"What did you do?" Clark somehow managed to scream through gritted teeth. His eyes' flaming red now matched Lobo's. Clark's fist was lifted, shaking with anger and power.

"Yo man back off; the face is the money maker. Hurt me and you never see her beautiful face again. I'm sure you're not in it for the face though—" Clark cut Lobo off by gripping him tighter.

"Where is she?" Clark's words were so loud they rang all through the streets of the city.

Lobo changed a setting on his gun and shot into the sky, a portal opened into what seemed to be another word. In the portal, Clark saw Diana stuck under the rubble of buildings in a giant area filled with black sand. She looked like she was screaming; blood was dripping from her mouth and across the pallid complexion of her face, but Clark couldn't hear her. His heart swelled seeing her in so much pain.

Lobo started talking, "Yeah, army guy must be in there somewhere too. Probably, I don't really know if humans can withstand the whole laser-y thing."

Clark stared at the portal in silence, running through options. He knew this could be a trap, but Diana would die without him. Was Diana even truly in there?

Lobo awkwardly interjected Clark's thinking, "Erm listen fella, you can join her if you want to so badly. It's just it closes in ten seconds and then I can't open it again. Sorry, bad product design, I know. It does the job though, not complaining. Swear to god though about the ten seconds and it being her though, scouts honor you know—"

Clark abruptly punched Lobo so hard shock-waves reverberated through the air; Lobo was instantly knocked out and fell limp in Clark's arms. Clark swooped down, laying Lobo's body with the authorities and flew back upwards into the portal, sure of his choice. He knew that the league got his message for back up and he felt confident in their ability to contain Lobo.

Clark wasn't going to throw away a chance to save Diana. It would haunt him if he did. Steve was a national hero; Clark wanted to find Steve as well. In the back of his mind, Clark heard Steve's warning, "_Get out of here. Both of you get out of here now! He wants you two! Go!_" Yet, Clark couldn't help but try to enter the portal; he knew it was probably what Lobo wanted, but Diana's life was at hand.

As he entered, Clark's body started to fade in the same manner Diana's did; he felt himself being sucked into a windy vortex of blinding light. When Clark could open his eyes again, he was skidding against the black sands he had seen and smashed through piles of rubble before roughly stopping.

Clark got up, feeling oddly drained. He felt something warm trickling down his arms and noticed it was blood from where a sharp shard of glass had settled in his skin. He felt a pang of panic; he was weaker here. Where was he? What had he gotten himself into? Clark paused for a second, and looked around at the barren landscape and purplish skies around him. No sign of life. Goosebumps popped up along Clark's body as the creepy atmosphere made him uneasy, but then also there was the heat, he felt hot. He pulled the shard out of his arm and discarded it. Clark took a shaky breath and attempted to acclimate to feeling so—human. He focused himself and settled on one question that trumped all others, where was Diana?


	7. Chapter 2

**AN:** Thanks for all the comments! You guys rock!

**Where we left off: **Diana and Clark travel to the city to find a huge fight erupting with Lobo at the center of it. After Lobo managed to capture Diana and Steve Trevor in some strange place, Superman follows them hoping to rescue them.

* * *

Clark tried to launch into the air and managed a wobbly stance in the sky before tumbling right back down to the heated sands of the strange planet. As he tumbled down to the ground he panicked at seeing he was wearing some kind of body tight suit. He scratched at it but it would not rip. The black suit fit him like a wet suit would, it smelled of chemicals, and Clark had no recognition of putting it on.

He took a deep breath, ignoring the panic at seeing the foreign fabric on his skin and tried to launch up again. This launch lasted long enough for him to see the dilapidated buildings behind the huge sand dunes, but his flight ended in a wobbly fall back to the planet. His bloody arm was now oozing but before he could comprehend his new mortality, Clark's focus was broken by a scream, "Superman!"

Steve Trevor stood humped over on the top of a dune near Clark, waving manically. He wore the same body tight Clark was wearing.

"She's crushed under a ton of debris! I can't lift it." Steve was trying to be quiet, and his voice sounded coarse and cracked. His voice was so dry it made Clark thirsty.

Clark attempted to fly towards Steve but was only able to levitate a few seconds in the air before coming to his own rough landing in the sands. Clark settled for leaps, but it was a frustrating amount of time before he reached Steve.

"No offense, but you and Wonder Woman seem to have a hard time following directions with the whole 'get out of here' thing I tried to push." Steve was jogging over to where Diana was. Clark followed behind.

"What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

"It means, if you listened, you wouldn't be here."

Clark stared at Steve; it was an evasive answer and the soldier was smart enough to know it was. Clark decided he did not have time for this in the moment. He just jogged ahead of Steve and stood at the top of another dune, looking down into the basin of broken down buildings.

"Didn't know you could bleed," Steve pointed at Clark's bloodied arm. Clark gave no response and the talkative soldier kept pushing it, "You know—now that I think about it, you really don't know where we are, and you don't give us the surprise element we need when you launch into the sky and boom down like that."

And Clark snapped, "Are you going to make yourself useful in helping me find her, or just criticize me while she dies?"

Steve looked at Superman in frustration before walking on. Steve doubted that Superman ever had to go into a battle assuming he would be the underdog, but as a soldier that was Steve's immediate assumption. The entire situation of being somewhere he'd never been with no weapons pushed some unpleasant memories in Steve's head; to Steve, Superman's nonchalant showiness was anxiety inducing.

He probably thinks I'm being cocky with him. Keep it cool Steve, keep it to yourself man. Steve thought.

It was uncomfortably silent for minutes as they traveled over another dune to the broken down buildings. Once they reached the top of this dune Clark stopped walking and tried to focus enough to hear her heartbeat. The world around him broke into indistinguishable cacophony. He heard sand grains twirling in the wind, parts of buildings slowly falling, lizard like creatures scurrying along the grounds, but he could not focus enough to hear her. He had to stop before it gave him a migraine.

"Just enjoying the wind in a little moment romantic moment there? Just gave me a damn speech about wasting time." Steve murmured the comment more to himself than to Superman.

"I'm trying to find her heartbeat. I—I can't hear it. But my powers seem weakened here so it could be that." The tough guy Clark was playing disappeared for a moment as he let fear shine through; Steve picked up on it.

"Or—"

Or she's dead. Clark thought. Just let this asshole suggest she's dead so I have a real reason to punch him.

Steve began but he stopped seeing the look on Clark's face.

"Let's just keep going I'm sure she's fine. I had to leave her to get help but it was so damn hard, I had to keep circling back every ten minutes 'cus it's just everything looks the same here. And I saw you floundering in the sky and decided it was a better option than knowing exactly where she is and just watching her die. It's chilling, I felt like someone was watching me or—"

Then, a shuffle in the buildings and a guttural scream from an area to their left cracked the dry air. Diana.

Clark whipped his head to the sound and attempted to fly to its location before he lost it. His flying failed and he continuously hit the ground hard with sand flying in large booms around him. His flying yet again devolved into some form of large leaps before he reached Diana.

Her body was buried under piles of rubble and each breath was clearly a painful struggle. She was pushing up against the ground with one shaky elbow in attempt to make breathing easier. Her eyes were caked shut with the dust from the buildings and desert sands. She recoiled at his touch, unsure of who it was.

"Diana, it's me, Kal, Diana. I'm getting you out, hang in." He started pulling things off her desperately tossing them as far as he could manage.

Everything felt heavy and Clark was sweating in a matter of seconds; it was an uncomfortable feeling but Clark hid the pain. As Clark reached the last layer on her, Steve came over and helped lift it off. Diana's arm was bent at a wrong angle and the rest of her was bloodied and bruised. Clark gently scooped her into his arms and cleared the debris from her eyes and face. She gently blinked her eyes against his hands and opened them.

For a second Clark was taken aback by how blue her eyes were. Perhaps it was just the contract with the black sands that caked her face.

"Steve. Steve is here too. Is he here? He helped me earlier, is he safe?" She asked in a slurred voice.

"Here, and honored you thought of me princess." Steve walked into her frame of sight.

Diana, though injured, still managed to roll her eyes at that name and Clark internally smiled thinking of their little joke with the word. Diana was wearing the same body tight black suit he and Steve were wearing.

Diana recoiled for a second when she realized her clothes had changed and her lasso was gone, "Where the hell are we? What are we wearing?" She was barely conscious and her words were garbled. She fidgeted with her broken arm using her intact one and suddenly stopped as her nails hit her bracers.

"They left my bracers. Kal, take my bracers off and step away." She commanded with sudden clarity.

Clark managed to run his x-ray vision over it for a few seconds, "Your arm popped out of the socket. You have broken ribs."

"Pop the arm back. Take off the bracers. Step away, both of you." She gritted her teeth, barely capable to sustain the pain.

"Diana that would hurt like hell. You are barely lucid right now."

"If you don't, I will."

"Diana, you don't have the x-ray vision here."

"Kal. Put it back, it'll heal quicker. Take off the bracers and step away. If I could do it myself right now I would." Diana's words were so vitriolic Clark decided to do what she asked in the moment and ask more questions later.

Clark sighed and quickly snapped her bone back into place. Diana gasped and squirmed in his arms before settling and attempting to stand on her own. She managed a shaky stance and Clark took her bracers off and stepped aside.

Clark was not expecting anything to happen, but the second he removed the bracers, the air around them dropped what felt like 20 degrees. The sky became a grey soup and all Clark could manage to say was a tentative, "Diana…"

Diana eyes flashed blood red and she collapsed the ground. Her veins appeared grayish under her now pale skin. Lightening struck and burned the sands beside her.

Diana twitched and shook with disjointed movements. She looked like she was trying to hold something back. Wind around them picked up and Steve noticed bones rattling up through the sands and blowing in the winds. They looked oddly human; Steve calmly looked across to Superman trying to read his expressions, but Superman was gawking at the events taking place around him expressionlessly.

Clark watched in astonishment as Diana's cracked bones healed themselves through the flashes of x-ray vision he could manage.

Diana started clawing at the ground, Clark assumed, for her bracers. The vein on Diana's neck was protruding and her eyes were now completely black, she was starting to look like a monster created by Hades instead of the angelic daughter of Zeus.

Clark inched towards her to help get the bracers on, but she screamed "Stay away! Both of you!" in a coarse voice neither of the two men wanted to hear again. Her warning was too late as Steve had already gotten too close when he grabbed a bracer gliding across the sands and moved to throw it to her feet.

Almost instantly, Steve fell to his knees as if compelled by some force; his eyes turned to black and kept moving back and forth in his head. He looked as though he was suppressing a scream.

"Let me help you Diana!" Clark screamed, terrified she would kill the soldier and would never be able to live it down.

Diana was panicking. Steve was just trying to help her and she was tearing his brain apart and could not stop. She had no control. She was not going to hurt Clark as well "No! I'll kill you. I'll kill you, get away. Stay away."

Tears were streaming down her face. "I'm hurting him. Oh god Clark. I'm hurting him. I don't know what I'm doing." Steve was now foaming at the mouth.

She screamed and attempted to crawl further from Steve to no affect on his state "I have no control. I'm going to kill him. I'm killing him."

"Diana, calm down and get the bracers on." Clark was screaming over the winds whipping around them.

Diana turned to Clark, "I have so much power Kal." She stared at him blankly and Clark was scared the Diana he knew was gone. Clark stumbled with words; when he looked at Diana he just saw a ruthless thirst for power he'd never dreamed of seeing on her face. He could not form a sentence.

After a silence that felt like hours, Diana shakily managed to get the bracers back on and she stood shivering as the dust she caused settled.

Steve swallowed a gasp of air and collapsed. Diana ran to him and helped him up, but she was disgusted by the fact that he flinched when she touched him. She was disgusted with her power and role as God of War.

Steve opened his eyes and smirked at seeing her huddled over him with concern. "I'm fine doll face." Steve reached out reflexively to wipe the tear that left a line of tan skin on her black-sand covered face. Diana was so concerned about Steve, she did not even process the fact he'd wiped her tear.

Steve felt Clark's eyes piercing him. Steve brushed himself off as if nothing had happened.

Clark angrily asked, "What the hell was that Diana? What happened to you Steve?"

Steve stated, "She put these images in my mind. It was of here; a lot of people have died here. Fighting, I don't know if they were 'people' as in humans, but they all looked different, alien almost. It was overwhelming, it took over my mind; I couldn't stop it. Loud, disturbing. Could've gone without the extra dose of PTSD, but I'm not hurt."

Diana nervously added in, "I saw it too. I am sorry, I never should have done that. I will never do that again. I was just in so much pain I was selfish in wanting to heal, and I thought this would work. It was not like this when I tried it on Earth. I lost control here. I could have hurt you, I could have—"

"You didn't hun. Don't worry about it." Steve was speaking plainly; his mind was obviously still on the images he saw. "Listen though, if you are going to put me through that shit I just went through, I have the right to know what the hell that was. We are all stuck here and need to trust each other." Steve was plain-spoken and blunt.

Clark sarcastically chortled, funny for Steve to be talking about how they all need to trust one another. Steve was the one who seemed to know about the shady dealings that got them stuck here in the first place. "Diana…I don't think you owe him anything, but you should explain what you can." Clark interjected gently.

Diana fidgeted with her bracers, "I don't know what I can explain. For one, I am God of War. You are a soldier, that's why, I think, it affected you more. And the bones around us are of those fallen while fighting. When I let go of my powers like that I just felt a drive to create an army, and I think I started pulling the dead out to form an army. I had no control. The images I saw came with the bones. I think they were stories of those who fell here. They came to me, I couldn't stop them."

"Holy hell, America's sweetheart has a dark secret doesn't she?" Steve noticed Diana still stood beside him as if she expected him to collapse at any second.

Steve felt uncomfortable standing next to her. Her body tight suit made her infinitely attractive, her blue eyes and beautiful black hair drove Steve crazy. "I'm fine beautiful, I really am. No need to helicopter around me." Diana bit her lip nervously and took a few steps away, confused by his insistence on giving him space.

"You use the names condescendingly." Diana said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"What names?" Steve inquired.

"Beautiful, hon—"

"Old habit, not condescending, and should not be a primary concern in your mind after that shitstorm." Steve felt bad for snapping at her, and turned away from all of them. He squatted, rubbing his eyes as if trying to erase the images Diana forced upon him. It was still flashing in his brain, and he just wanted them to leave so he had some time.

Diana closed her eyes as if it would make the images go away, as if it would make the image of Steve foaming at the mouth on his knees go away.

There was silence for a second and Clark eyed Diana, almost scared by how much being God of War has affected her and how little he knew about it. Clark thought he knew everything about her, and now he wondered how much was just a mask she put on for the world. He lost a lot of his trust in her in that moment.

To add to Clark's distrust, he was nervous about if Steve was hiding something from them all.

He must know something more. He knew Lobo wanted us, he must know where we are. He must be part of their plan, whatever it is. Clark thought.

Then suddenly, Clark felt Steve slam him into the ground and heard a spear whizz over where he was standing. Clark and Steve were now protected by the walls of a fallen building. The spear abruptly exploded and then several more came raining down from all around the little basin the three of them were in.

"This is why stealth is important." Steve screamed over the sound of the explosives going off. Steve started ranting, "Aren't you the one with the god damn super powers here, you couldn't even see the spear about to kill you and—"

Diana rushed over to their cover behind the building. "Sorry to interrupt, but gentlemen, I think these shooters would have information useful to us. So how about we kick some ass and get out of here?"

Clark laughed gently, "Elegant battle strategy Diana. Let's get it done." He gently held her arm and asked, "Are you okay now? In the house, you promised me we'd talk about this whole God of War mess." With genuine care, he looked into her eyes.

"Yes, I am fine. We will talk about it if we live long enough to." She shrugged Clark's concern off because the truth is, she was scared. She did not want to talk about something that scared her; she was brought up to be fearless.

So, she shifted her attention to the soldier, "Steve, I promise I am not so vile with the bracers on. Trust right? Let's start building it today." And with that, Diana threw herself into the battle with a cry.


	8. Chapter 3

**AN: Thank you for all the reviews**

**Where we left off: The heroes find themselves lost in some foreign planet at the hands of Lobo. **

* * *

Two men slid down the sand hills in sleek black clothes similar to what Clark, Diana, and Steve were wearing. They seemed comfortable in the sands, trained. They controlled their descent, skating through the sands with animal-like maneuverability. They were silent, and the only sound in the air was the hissing of arrows through the winds.

The other men stood on top of the dunes, looking down like predatory crows, ready to pick through the scraps of whatever they found. The second Diana stepped out from the building she was overwhelmed by the magnitude of what surrounded her. Arrows were flying from every angle and corner. There were a small amount of men, perhaps ten total, but their marksmanship was impeccable. The ting of arrows hitting her bracers created a metallic melody that echoed through the desert.

Clark leaped out of from the building ruins. He ran to Diana and put his back against her, defending against the arrows hitting her from behind. The men, realizing the ineffectiveness of their arrows, were abandoning stations and shot across the sands like sleek black bullets to face the heroes head on.

"We aren't going to make any progress if all we can do is deflect arrows the whole time." Clark was eyeing the men coming at them from the distant black sand dunes.

Clark attempted to use his laser sight to knock the remaining shooters off balance. The men stumbled and fell in the sands, but Clark's eyes burned red and flickered off in seconds. He flinched, closing his eyes to alleviate the pain resounding through his eyes and yanking nerves on his brain. The glare irritated his eyes and made the world an angry blur of red. It felt like someone had set his eyes on fire and grains of sand pricked his eyes furthering irritating it.

"You alright?" Diana screamed over the sounds over the remaining whizzing arrows. "You seem weaker here."

"I am, but I'm fine." Clark fought through the pain in his eyes and attempted aiming at the shooters again. He shot blindly into the distance and caused giant eruptions on the sand dune surfaces. He was frustrated, stumbling, and could not help but feel as though he was just drawing more attention to the scene.

Meanwhile, Steve, behind the ruins, had found a weapon of sorts. He could have sworn it hadn't been there just seconds ago, it was almost as if it manifested in place. But Steve did not have time to question. He ran his calloused hands across its alien surface. The gun felt cold and metallic, like any other gun he'd ever held. Steve fidgeted with it for seconds before hastily deciding to shoot it. His shaky hand rested uneasily on the trigger before he applied to pressure to send the gun into action.

The kick of the gun almost knocked Steve off of his feet, but his military training kept him stable, feet buried in the sands. The gun sent a laser flying out of the muzzle. It cut through the air, leaving a cackling sizzle in the air.

Steve smiled. _That's what I'm talking about, _he thought to himself.

"Big blue, focus on the guys on the floor, I got up top." Steve screamed across the plain.

Clark's eyes were still a painful and irritated red. But he was no stranger to pain. He replied an easy "Got'cha" before slamming a man in front of him down to the ground with a single booming punch.

_Better_, Clark thought.

Steve shot another beam from the gun. It pierced the skies and sent the top of a sand dune flying haphazardly upwards. The last shooter abandoned his post and slid down the dune effortlessly.

Clark was trying to knock the ground attackers out, but his punches were having such a little effect on them. They had weapons; it felt like swipes and stabs were coming in a constant barrage. He was growing tired as the ones he knocked down came right back up. His sides ached and bled.

Clark looked over to see Diana was having the same problem. The men were building up on them. Diana and Clark were both getting overwhelmed. The men's punches felt stronger, something wasn't adding up. In ordinary circumstances Diana could knock ten men out in her sleep.

At this point, Steve tried reloading his gun, but there was no click as he reloaded this time. His heart dropped in his chest when he realized it was empty. He pulled the trigger repeatedly; the empty click sound sent panic coursing through him. His two allies were being pummeled; they were already in pain from the landing on the odd planet. Their chances of success at this point were almost nonexistent.

Steve steadied, took a breath, and launched into the fight with his fists cocked.

The fight raged on, but the men attacking had the upper hand. They seemed comfortable in the sands and had knifes, more people; they were prepared for this fight.

"Metahumans?" Diana screamed at Clark. "They don't stay down."

Clark motioned away from the fight, "We could—"

"We _aren't _running. We are warriors. We do not run with our tails behind our legs." Diana screamed.

"The bracers?" Steve screamed before a man's punch knocked him to the ground.

"No. We will find another way." Diana, gritted her teeth forcing away the images she saw seconds before when her bracers were off. The thought of it distracted her long enough for someone to hit her squarely in the ribs.

"I just healed those, asshole." Diana said as she staggered momentarily, too weak to continue.

"Make them kneel." A voice commanded from the top of a dune. The three earthlings turned to the dune and squinted, trying to see the man standing in front of the blazing sun. He wore the same attire as them, but carried himself differently. His voice sounded like sandpaper, but oozed with authority. Regal, calm, and controlled. He slid down the dune with ease and grace as well, not once breaking eye contact with Diana.

"By the way, not metahumans— aliens dear." At this point his men had a hold on Diana, Clark, and Steve. They had each grabbed a part of the body and were refusing to let go despite the kicks and sharp elbow jabs they took to their bodies.

Steve powerfully elbowed a man in the ribs and promptly received a sharp punch in the face. He took a mouthful of sand.

"Right in the money-maker." Steve muttered as he spit the sand out of his mouth.

Clark's vision was no longer a ruddy red and he was having the most success with breaking away from his captors. There were just barely enough men to hold all three of them down.

"Did you not hear me the first time? Make them kneel." the man leading the group now loomed over them. He had long scraggly hair; his eyes were a fiery red, and his body a dull yet steely grey.

_Aliens, _Diana thought, _why can we understand them? _

The men holding the three down started kicking at the back of their legs trying to make them kneel. Steve fell first; Diana heard a crack and was certain they broke Steve's leg in the process of forcing him down. Steve didn't even make a sound as he fell; he was staring un-phased at the monster in front of them, fearless, yet his face was scrunched up in pain.

Diana fell lopsided as they tried to force her down. A man forced Diana's face down with his boot and she had to close her eyes to protect from the sand her face was drowning in.

"Diana!" Clark exclaimed.

The monster talked over Clark's screams. "Even better. Let the dog lay. I've had my eye on her the whole fight. She's feisty." The monster went up and lifted Diana's face from the heated sand. He paused, looking at her before squeezing her cheeks. "Next time sweetheart, take the advice of the man and run. Now you have no choice besides what we provide you with." He cracked an ugly rotting smile centimeters from her face.

"I tend to make my own choices." Diana spit at him, wriggling across the rough sandpaper as she escaped from the monster's touch. His skin felt flaky and dry, a sensation she would expect from having a lizard or snake rub against her skin.

"We mean you no harm, let us go and we will continue on our way." Clark said, his blue eyes earnestly looking for a simple solution to the mess they were in.

The man laughed, "Haha, you mean me no harm? Now how is that? How do you expect to survive then? Everyone here means to harm each other; it is the nature of the game. You've already done a great job contributing to it; look at how scraggly these men look. It's incredible! "

The man turned his back to the heroes and spoke with showy gestures at the nothingness of the desert, "The games in action. It incites such exhilaration, does it not?" He then turned back to the heroes, "A little fan service for the cameras, you know?"

"You are insane. What game? What camera?" Clark questioned.

"These are the earthlings Titan. They never understand the game." A man restraining Diana spoke.

"Much too powerful to be Earthlings. The Earthlings are normally nothing more than game animals." Titan's voice was dripping with sadistic cruelty.

"This year it differs. My family read of it. The first woman of the contest. There were supposed to be a man and woman, Gods among their people."

"Yet, there are three here," Titan hissed, "Kota? Show yourself, we need to decide which ones we want to live. How unprofessional of you to waste their time like this."

Sand started drifting towards a plot of empty land. The coal black sand built up, into a skinny black pole. Winds blew violently, and all the people there closed their eyes to shield against the sands. When Diana opened her eyes again, a human like creature was in front of her.

His eyes and skin were black orbs. His skin flaked and fell in clumps, but the sand crawled up his body and filled in the spots. Kota resembled a zombie: dead, empty eyes with flaking, decomposing skin.

"I sense power." Kota dragged his dark body form over to Diana. His movement towards her was an unsettling disjointed limp.

"Her magic is different, I can't place it. But it is powerful here, our magic is making her stronger. Look at her right now, her eyes burn with power. She pulls from me—she is an interesting specimen, better to study dead."

Diana was on the floor wriggling more and more violently. She felt stronger, she felt in control. She viciously bit the leg of a man, causing him to bleed and recoil.

"Stop feeding her power." One of the men holding Diana yelped.

Kota smiled with his rotting, shark like teeth, "It's just a little drama, a little excitement. I will stop though, because she bores me at this point." Kota stopped feeding Diana power and sauntered away. Diana watched in disgust, her face disgustingly close to the pool of blood from the man's leg.

"The middle one is good for us. Powerful, strong, reliable. A soldier, he'll do what we want to save others. He wasn't meant to be here, he was supposed to supply us the gods, but he got caught in it foolishly." He walked by Steve, who didn't even look up or turn to face Kota.

"Look at the creature, he won't even look at the people he condemned to death in the eyes. Won't even look me, his captor, in the eyes. Pitiful."

"Steve? What is he saying?" Diana was still pushed against the floor. She felt a wave of anger flood her and she fought desperately against the people who restrained her again to no avail. She realized it was Kota holding them all down. The men were merely contributing. That explained all the arrows, how three men were capable of holding her down.

"What the hell is this? Steve, what game is this?" Clark struggled against his restrainers as well.

"Kryptonian from Earth," Kota gasped, just now seeing Clark, "oh how powerful he is here. I knew a Kryptonian once, killed my family in one blow. My magic makes him weaker, that I know for sure, because I then killed that Kryptonian. Oh look at the poor thing."

Kota touched Clark, and Clark became a ghoulish pale. He collapsed to the ground and the restrainers just yanked him back up to just see him fall back down.

"Back the hell off." Clark fought the effect and stood back up, blood rushed back to his face until the effort of overpowering the magic overwhelmed him again.

As Clark stood back up, Kota pulled his hand off of Clark's face as if burned by fire. He laughed, hiding his discomfort at seeing a Kryptonian.

"Strong." Kota muttered.

Kota's words were followed by a loud rumbling noise and in the distance. In the depths of the desert they all saw a cloud of gas forming.

Diana looked to Steve and Clark hoping their expression would help explain something that was going on. Steve was keeping his head low, avoiding eye contact. Clark looked confused; he looked at Titan like he was insane.

Kota stared off into the cloud forming. "It is an Elimination. Harmless, only temporarily restraining to kill the weaker, not entertaining ones. I refuse to face it. Waste of my time." Titan's booming voice silenced the panic seeping into the people holding the three Earth heroes.

"Stay here with the three, we will come back for you. Those who are gone or do not hold their post will be murdered by my own hands. The men shifted uncomfortably.

"When has an Elimination ever been harmless?" One of the restrainers spoke out hesitantly.

"They treat you as disposables." Diana screamed. "Do not trust them, trust me. You do not have to work for them. You always have the power to choose. They need you."

Titan laughed sadistically and walked over to the dissenter, "We've kept you alive longer than we should have. If you say a word against me again, you will die a slow painful death. Do you doubt me?"

There was a silence, no one doubted Titan. Titan let the silence cook as he stared at the dissenter before he broke the silence with a laugh. His laugh rang through the desert and bounced off the sides of the ruins.

"I know you believe me, but I'm a big fan of getting the point across." Titan pulled a knife out form his black suit pocket and threw it squarely in the head of one of men holding Steve. The man fell to the floor with a surprised squeak before the knife settled in his head. As his body fell to the ground, the air filled with the sound of a horn. Diana, Clark, and Steve flinched at the surprise of the all encompassing sound, but the others seemed unaffected.

As the sound of the horn stopped, another sound broke through the echoes it left in its wake, "LOSS PLAYER 13."

Titan smiled. "Damn, I always thought he was 10. Shame. Now," he reiterated, "you guys stay, and we'll be right back. With these three dead, all of us will be closer. We will slay the false gods of Earth."

With that Kota grasped Titan and both of them disappeared. The heroes looked at each other, preparing for whatever the smoke cloud had in store for them.

It was an intimidating sight. It was a wall of smoke so thick seeing through it was impossible. It was purplish in color, and dispersed rapidly while bringing violent winds with it. The giant cloud of smoke hissed as it got closer, resembling the sound of crackling fire when doused with water. The sand formed towering sand tornadoes in wake of the powerful winds. In a matter of seconds, Diana could not see anyone or thing near her, everything was sand; yet, she could hear the cloud's hissing as it got closer.

Diana closed her eyes, "May the gods be with us."


	9. Chapter 4

**AN: Thank you for all the reviews. This goes back in time a year to explain more of why Clark is so hesitant with dating Diana and some depth to the relationships between the characters. Feel free to let me know what you think. After this we pick back up in the desert with Clark, Diana and Steve.**

* * *

**Wayne Manor: 1 Year Ago**

Diana nervously tapped down the sidewalk in her heels trying to follow Bruce's directions tediously. He wanted all the Leaguers to use his secret sewer side entrance so they didn't draw attention to the manor. She eventually reached the solid metal door and put her hand against its cool surface. The door slid open as it recognized her finger prints and she traveled down a spiraling tunnel until she saw the wooden paneled entrance to Wayne Manor. There was a security system set up, and Diana uncomfortably fidgeted with the buttons until a bleep noise cleared her and let her in.

Diana jumped as the door swung open and Bruce stood on the other side, cocky smile plastered on his face.

He laughed, "Hey. Didn't mean to scare you."

"I hate that entrance. I can never remember what button to press; the tunnel is creepy and gross. The entrance to the tunnel is literally in a sewer." She was trying to keep an angry face, but the smile on Bruce's was infectious.

"Happy to see you too Diana." Both of them started walking towards the main floor of the house.

"It's oddly quiet." Diana observed.

"The party starts at 9."

"You told me 6."

"Yes, I am aware I told you 6," Bruce looked back at her with a devilish smile, "We've been dating a long time and I never see you, wanted some time before the New Year's celebrations kick in."

"A long time—do people consider a month 'a long time'?" Diana's voice dripped with concern.

"It just feels a lot longer, especially for me—with being the party boy and all."

"Every woman dreams of hearing those words." Diana cooed sarcastically.

Diana pushed ahead of Bruce up the final set of stairs to the main floors, as she made it up, her eyes were assuaged by the greatest display of wealth she had see in her whole life.

The chandeliers sparkled with fine crystals that gave the room a gentle golden glow. New Year's décor was elegantly draped along the walls. Food platters were set up at various places around the home and filled the room with a tantalizing aroma. Pool tables, ping pong tables, and various card playing tables littered the main floor of Bruce's house. Expensive champagne bottles were spread like simple party décor.

Alfred appeared from behind a wall and corrected his posture once he realized the Princess was there.

He reached out and gently kissed Diana's hand, "You look ravishing as always dear, happy to see you here early."

"And I am always happy to see you my old friend. Bruce here bought me this dress actually." Diana spun in her loose long sleeved white dress and watched the frills float around her.

"Master Wayne, of the vast multitude of women you've brought here over the years,—"

Bruce sharply cut in, "Alfred…"

"Oh hush," Alfred playfully reprimanded, "I was just going to say this one should be a keeper. Diana, you are the definition of timeless beauty."

Diana's eyebrows crinkled at the thought of all the women Bruce has been with through the years, but she smiled at the complement nonetheless. Her doubts in the relationship started to surface again, but tonight they started a new year. It only seemed fair she choke her doubts down again and enjoy the moment.

"Alfred, you are too kind to me, and this spoiled brat for that matter. I'm assuming you put together all the décor and party elements."

"It was my pleasure, I have a tendency to be banal while planning things, it is preferable that others stay uninvolved." Alfred winked and shifted away back into the kitchen, "I'll leave you two be. Let me know if there is something I can get for you sir."

Diana laughed at Alfred's dramatic exit and turned to face Bruce. "So, _Master Wayne_ what did you have planned?"

"I was just thinking you could get the first go around on the food and watch some TV with me." Bruce nonchalantly popped a grape in his mouth from a nearby table.

Diana's smile drooped for a second, for a millionaire, Bruce was not one for flashy shows of affection, or really any show of affection. Diana was a simple girl, but she couldn't help but feel disappointed. She'd built up seeing him too much, it had been about a week since she'd had time to sit down and actually talk to him…her boyfriend.

"Do you not like the idea?" He asked as he was already making his way to the couch to watch the news.

Diana muttered sheepishly, "No, it's just different from what I thought you'd plan for us."

Bruce crinkled his brow, "It's simple, I thought you liked simple."

"I do—" Diana was about to continue her sentence to attempt to explain her displeasure in just watching TV, but she lacked the words. It was a phenomenon even she didn't understand well. She loved doing simple things; she never wanted extravagance, but she wanted to do something with meaning. A calming walk, watching a meaningful movie, playing a game he liked as a child. But watching the news was something they could do any day, something they even did up on the watchtower. Was she being unreasonable in expecting more from a date? Was it even a date?

"You do, but—" Bruce tried to prompt her sentence.

"No that's it, I do. I like simple." Her mind muddled with questions as she tossed her shoes off to the side and padded over to the couch with him.

She curled up against him, with her head resting on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and took in her flowerly scent while flipping through channels and having conversations with Diana. She'd been on man's world for a year now, but he still found her messing up English phrases, and she hadn't lost her innocent, fresh way of looking at the world.

It was endearing and reminded him of why she of all women was worth that extra mile. Her logical way of seeing the world mirrored his and made her one of his closest friends besides Clark. Thirty minutes into watching TV, he watched her slowly fall asleep against him. She looked like an angel, her soft skin against his ripped and scarred skin felt heavenly. Her silky hair flowed against his skin delicately.

Regardless, he couldn't help but be frustrated, after a week of build-up he had bored his date to sleep. He would have planned something more extravagant but he thought she liked simple; in moments like this he feared he did not know her well at all. He knew she must be tired of all the work she'd been doing at the League and did not want to wake her, but his frustration grew as he saw the clock reach 8:50, the others would be there in no time. He started to question if hiding their relationship from everyone besides Alfred was the right choice. It practically condemned his relationship with Diana to failure; they had to hide all shows of affection around every other person.

As he gently shifted her to get up off of the couch, she slowly re-positioned and then fluttered her eyes open.

"Oh gods, did I fall asleep on you?"

"Yes."

She frowned and looked at him with pleading eyes, "I'm so sorry, I know this was supposed to be our time, what time is it now?"

"8:55" He felt bad being short with her; he had a quick temper and he knew he needed to work on that.

"Bruce, I'm sorry." She rose and kissed him. "I feel terrible. You should have woken me!"

Bruce brooded over the fact that the kiss felt meaningless, and gave a half-hearted reply. "I'm sure you're tired Di, we can just set up another day."

He gave her a meek smile as she embraced him. Diana's stomach stirred as she could still taste the frustration brewing in the air.

"Do we need to do anything before they come?" Diana questioned earnestly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Alfred shuffled out of the kitchen and interjected, "Mr. Kent is at the door."

"Letting people in is probably an important step." He drew himself away from her and straightened the couch and his shirt to ensure no one would suspect that he spent that time with Diana.

As he walked to open the door he turned and demanded, "If he asks, you came here five minutes ago."

* * *

Clark walked up the staircase to Diana. He was wearing a white t-shirt a little too small for him and a pair of blue jeans. The shirt accentuated Clark's rippling muscles and his sharp blue eyes.

"Clark!" Diana exclaimed and ran to him. She hadn't seen him in a week due to his off world mission.

He hugged her tightly and lifted her slightly off the ground, "Hey pipsqueak."

Bruce laughed, in comparison to Clark, the six foot Amazonian warrior did look small.

"So are you Clark, Kal or Superman today? Just so I don't use the wrong name." She arched an eyebrow at him, still slightly peeved that she had been one of the last people he told his secret to last month.

"I eventually told the leaguers that are attending today, so feel free to call me whatever you want." He scrunched up his face and tapped her nose, "Princess."

She sighed and crossed her arms playfully. "Bruce remind me again why Clark wouldn't spar with me a few weeks ago."

Bruce rolled his eyes at their constant need to compete, "He said he was scared."

"I thought so," Diana delivered a cheesy smile and then sincerely hugged both Bruce and Clark in a big bear hug.

"Um—" Bruce shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm so happy to be spending New Years with my two closest friends. I feel incredibly lucky tonight."

Bruce broke the hug and smoothed a wrinkle in his shirt. "Let's drink to that!"

* * *

In the matter of an hour, Wayne manor was filled with members of the Justice League.

Hal and Ollie rushed to the pool table and were engrossed in a round. Cyborg was playing a round of foozball with Wally while Bruce watched intently. Aquaman was chatting with Alfred while sampling the many delicacies laid out for the guests. Even J'onn was intrigued by a game of Poker he was playing with Clark. Though the League had grown to include many other members, the small group who started it all felt increasingly like a family.

Diana was distractedly looking at Bruce from the card playing table. She felt like anytime people showed up he made an effort to avoid her. He hadn't said a word to her since their small exchange with Clark.

Clark sensed something was wrong, and he kept shifting his eyes off of his cards to look at Diana. She was staring at Bruce sullenly, and absentmindedly fidgeting with her billowy white dress.

"Diana, are you sure you don't want to play a round?" Clark asked her for what felt like the millionth time.

"Yes, I am enjoying watching you play as it is."

"You haven't been watching the game Diana." He looked at his cards, avoiding her glare.

Diana snarled, "It appears neither have you. You have been looking at me more than the cards."

"Youch. Point taken. Do what makes you happy."

J'onn looked up from his cards and addressed Diana, "I think perhaps a better question is, is there anything we could do to make you happier Diana? It is New Year's and everyone seems to be in good spirits."

Diana sighed, "No, I am enjoying watching the game. I'm tired and irritable. I apologize."

Hal walked by Diana with a drink in his hand. "I brought this over for you. Figure being hot as hell must make you thirsty."

Diana graciously took the drink from his hand, "Hal, when will you stop with those terrible pick up lines?"

"When you let me take you out. Just one date. I know I mess around with you a lot, but I've always been serious about getting to know you better. Even if it goes nowhere, you know it'll be fun." Hal's confidence oozed from his words and he leaned against the table waiting for a reply.

Diana stuttered; it was hard to deny an offer so straightforward and nonchalant. There was almost no reason to say no, Hal was just asking to get to know her better with no strings attached. Of course there was that the fact that she was dating Bruce, but he couldn't know that.

"I—umm" Diana's blue eyes avoided eye contact with Hal and searched the room before landing on Bruce and then switching to J'onn who was pretending to be entranced by the cards. J'onn was still bewildered by the way of people and avoided getting involved.

"A 'no' would've done it Diana." Hal cooly laughed and gave her a good-natured pat on the shoulder. "No biggie. Eh blue, play pool with me next. I'm getting my ass handed to me. Also, Diana, do you mind if I just take the drink back, I doubt you'd like it anyway."

"Sure." As Diana uncomfortably handed the drink back to Hal, she noticed he was swaying and was practically black-out drunk.

Hal swallowed the drink in one gulp and stumbled back over to the table with Ollie.

Clark chuckled at seeing Diana so flustered, though he was sure men asked her out all the time. He put his hand over hers to get her attention. "I bet he won't even remember asking you in the morning. Di, you mind helping me decide what to do with my cards?"

Diana's stomach turned at feeling her hand on his. She thought back to when she saw him come up the stairs to her, what he smelled like when she hugged him, his warm blue eyes, how simple yet dashing he looked today. Her insides grew warm at the worried, caring look he was giving her right now. She couldn't help but feel like that is what a relationship should feel like. She loved having Bruce in her life, he was undoubtedly one of her best friends, but she feared they would never have that spark. She felt dirty as she commanded her heart to quit the acrobatics it was sent into when she looked into Clark's eyes. For the second time tonight, she swallowed her doubts and forced her thoughts onwards.

She peeked at Clark's cards, smiling at his resilient effort to include her in their game. "You should—"

"NO!" Clark exclaimed, "Don't let J'onn hear us! Just whisper it, I don't bite."

"You two are ridiculous." J'onn sighed.

Diana moved to whisper in Clark's ear.

Hal screamed from his game of pool across the room, "Clark did you ever stop to think how useless playing poker with someone who can read your mind is?"

The roomed boomed with laughter at the comment as people continued their games and celebrations. Diana awkwardly stepped away from Clark as she felt Bruce's eyes on her.

Ollie remarked, "He's not in it for the game, look at the female company." Ollie whistled and Diana consequently colored and stomped away towards a food platter.

Angry that their comments made Diana leave, Clark laid his cards down flat with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "Hal you ever think about how useless playing pool with a master marksman is?"

Ollie laughed and took another perfect shot, "Cheers to that."

The room went back to its loud conglomeration of talking and various competitions.

"She's upset?" J'onn asked Clark.

Clark shrugged, "You read minds don't you?"

"I try to do so with permission or when it is a necessity. I wouldn't use it to cheat in a card game or peek into Diana's personal thoughts."

Clark turned to find her but saw she was gone when he quickly scanned the room, "In a second I'll go find her and make sure she is okay."

Alfred gently grabbed Wonder Woman by the arm and pulled her into the kitchen, "I figured you'd want a break from all of that. I imagine they hit on you enough when they are sober."

"Thank you Alfred. I appreciate it; it's difficult being the only woman on the League. I went from an island of only women to having mostly male friends. It's been a —confusing transition to say the least."

"Do not take Master Wayne's aloof behavior to heart dear, he only wants to protect you from the backlash you'd face."

"It's not what I imagined a relationship to be like at all. Not that I have had much to go off of."

"Dating him comes with a lot of complications. You've been patient with him and I think that is all he can really ask from you."

"I feel silly when I think about my doubts. He is one of my best friends, I love talking to him; I love spending time with him. He respects me, he supports me. That _should _be enough."

"The title of hero comes with a heavy burden; it tends to put stresses on all aspects of life, especially the dating aspect."

Diana sighed and looked out to the men playing their games, normally she would feel to urge to jump right in with them and let her competitive side shine. Today she just wanted to nap away the terrors of yesterday. Her second year on Man's world was wrapping up and after the disasters she'd faced, she felt like it didn't deserve such a grandiose celebration.

Alfred saw her distraught look and gently whispered, "You've been under a lot of pressure dear, I'm sure Bruce and the others would not take it to offense if you took a stroll through the gardens and cleared your head."

Diana smiled at Alfred and inhaled, "I think I will."

Diana walked barefoot into the gardens and felt the grass beneath her feet in the warm Gotham night. The moon shone down beautifully and the water in the pond reflected the beauty of the heavens. For a second, Diana could pretend she was back on Themyscira with her sisters, exploring their beautiful flower beds before retiring to bed.

As she settled on a bench, she left her mind drift from Bruce to Clark. When other people flirted with her Clark just shook his head in disapproval. He never seemed to want to touch her for too long, or glance at her for long periods. He never hit on her, the furthest he'd go would be calling her beautiful, and even then it sounded like a formality.

He cared about her, he'd told her that on many occasions, but she felt his words were minced and he was holding back. She figured with his powers, holding back was something that was second nature to him.

She jumped when she turned to see Clark standing in an arch that led into the garden.

He stood leaned against the arch with his arms crossed, "Mind if I annoy you for a few seconds?" His muscles were tense and he was trying his best to look nonchalant; did not want to come off as forceful.

"You don't annoy me. What is it?"

Clark sat down next to her, but did not avoid eye contact in his typical manner. "Making sure you're okay. I know it must be annoying when they are hitting on you and making slights at you."

She wanted to tell Clark she just needed help with her relationship with Bruce, but she knew that would break the trust she built with Bruce. "It's just been a tough few years. I just want to go fly off sometimes."

"Hmm—let's go then!" Clark stood up and offered his hand.

"No, it was just a silly wish, Bruce worked hard to put this party together and get us all here."

"And you worked hard all year saving lives. We'll be back before New Years! I'll deal with Bruce for you if he gets mad."

Diana still looked hesitant.

"Come on, I've been in your place a hundred times before. Feeling like the outsider, everything just gets loud and overwhelming, talking about it just hurts your brain."

"Fly? Dressed like this? You are insane."

"I know. But I know for a fact you are too." He smiled with a boyish charm; Diana still just stared at the hand he had extended towards her.

"Come one," Clark urged, "I hate seeing you miserable like this. I have a cool place I've been thinking about showing you."

_Miserable, _Diana thought, _do I really look miserable? _

Diana reluctantly took his hand and watched Clark's smile devilishly light up.

"Hold on to me, because we are going to be moving fast." Clark's tone raised a challenge.

"What, you think I won't be able to keep up?" Diana was looking him right in the eyes, their bodies close but not touching.

Clark was undeniably attracted to her, and he hated when she did things like this. The challenge built a sizzle in the air and Clark just wanted to reach out and kiss her. Instead he shook his head and launched into the sky.

"I don't think you can keep up." He launched away from the house and heard her laughing behind him as she followed in pursuit. He made her laugh, and somewhere inside that bolstered Clark's mood.

As they zoomed through the skies laughing and flying, Clark forgot it was even a race and was just carving intricate patterns in the skies with Diana. As Clark got closer to the site, he started slowing down. Diana was oblivious to his change of speed and slammed right into Clark. Both of them spiraled toward the Earth and hit with a resounding boom. As they slammed, Clark grabbed Diana and held her on top of him so his back collided with the Earth and kept Diana's dress practically dirt free.

As they stopped moving Diana tumbled off of Clark. His face was a sooty brown with blades of grass stuck in his hair. His jeans and shirt were stained brown and he uselessly tried to dust himself off.

Diana was giggling as she struggled to keep a straight face, "Did I hurt you?"

He chuffed, "No, of course not. I'm invincible." He flexed his muscles and smiled, revealing he had dirt in between his teeth.

"Thank you for your quick thinking, it would have been a shame if my dress got dirtied. It was a gift from Bruce." Diana accidentally let that last part slip out, but it seemed to draw no suspicion from Clark.

"But, your shirt is soiled now. Also," Diana continued, "you have dirt here." She pointed at the spot in her mouth, and Clark awkwardly spit and blew air trying to clear it.

Clark wiped spit off of his face, "I bet that looked attractive."

_It's hard to make anything you do look unattractive, _Diana thought.

As Diana blushed at the thought she asked, "What did you want to show me? Is this the spot?"

Just as she asked the question, she looked up to see herself surrounded in a field of wild flowers with beautiful caverns and waterfalls sparkling in the moonlight.

Clark led her to the top of one of the caverns and from the ledge, they looked over the raw, unfiltered beauty of the spot.

"It looks like home. It's so beautiful. " Diana cooed as her heart did somersaults in her chest.

"I figured you'd think that." Clark absentmindedly pulled a flower from nearby and smoothed the petals. "Even though I've seen some of the most beautiful places on the planet, everything tends to be boring and lonely without someone to share it with."

"I feel like I'm 18 again, tromping through the forests with my horse past my curfew." Diana had stars in her eyes as she let her mind travel to warm memories at home.

"So, do you want to tell me what was going on at the party?" Clark gently interjected.

"It was just being the only woman at times is stressful. I can't help but feel different at times. The flirting tends to be off putting."

"All annoying for sure, but that's not really what's wrong is it? I mean you deal with those arguably well-meaning assholes all the time."

Diana was quiet and just dangled her legs over the side of the cavern.

"Ah—so you don't want to tell me. I see how it is." Clark let go of his flower and watched it flutter down at the whim of the winds.

He didn't want to push the topic more. "Just know if you ever want to rant, I'm going to be here for you." He placed his hand on her leg. Her skin felt soft and smooth under his hands. He felt sparks and a genuine connection as he sheepishly looked in her eyes and at her shy smile. He wondered if she felt it as well.

"Why do you keep your distance from me when others are around?" Diana moved so his hand so it was no longer on her leg.

"That's a random question; I haven't noticed if I do." Clark lied and shifted realizing his hand placement was out of line.

"You are worried they'd start making rumors aren't you? Perhaps you are embarrassed by being associated with me like that? You never flirt like the others, perhaps you don't find me attractive or fun to be around?"

"Diana, those are all wrong assumptions. I know people don't treat me like one, but I am just a man. I doubt there is a man on this planet who finds you unattractive."

"I don't need the lasso to know you are lying about how you distance yourself from me."

Clark knew she was dating Bruce. He had seen it coming for months. Today, when he triggered the security, he looked past the walls to see Bruce and Diana in a close embrace. His heart dropped into his stomach, and he knew he had made the right decision the months prior by creating some space. Bruce deserved happiness. Diana deserved happiness. Clark wanted to keep it quiet that he knew; Bruce would see his knowledge of the relationship as a threat.

Diana looked so young and vulnerable. Though she'd lived among men for a while now, she still had her innocence and purity. Clark never thought she'd noticed the distance he created; he never thought his actions mattered to her. Why would they when she had Bruce?

After his short time dating Lois, he was convinced he was going to be alone for the rest of life. His messy relationship with Lois practically destroyed their bond and years of friendship. It had been six months and he was still trying to get things back to normal with her.

Clark shrugged, "The next time you think I'm being distant, just punch me or something."

Diana frowned; it wasn't a real answer. He said her assumptions were all incorrect, so what was the real reason for it?

"We should head back." Diana looked at her watch, 11:50pm.

"Yeah. I kind of don't want to though." Clark stretched and laid back in the tall grasses.

Diana laid back in the grasses as well and stared up at the sky besides Clark, fighting her urge to just curl up on his chest and have his fingers run through her hair. "Thank you for showing me this. I feel very special to see one of _THE_ superman's favorite spots. And I'm sorry about smacking into you earlier, and then accusing you of ignoring me."

Clark turned on his side to playfully wink at her, "Not a problem. Bruce has nice taste. That dress looks beautiful on you. Shall we leave?" Clark hoped she didn't recognize the compliment as it slipped out of his mouth, but he knew she did.

Diana stated, "You look dirty, won't that cause a lot of questions?"

"Well I mean the other option is walking in naked."

"Or just changing into something that looks similar."

Crickets chirped in the background as Clark laughed at himself for not thinking of that simple idea, "That's an option as well, not as good as my 'walk in naked one' but I'll consider it."

He appeared back in a matter of seconds with fresh clothes and they flew off back to Bruce's house.

The flight was full of laughter and a small playful game of tag. That sense of electricity was back between them, and tension was building up as Clark yanked and pulled Diana to get ahead of her and she pushed and rubbed past him trying to get the upper hand.

As they touched down Diana laughed, "It's not too late to walk in naked since your plan is so feasible and sensible."

"I'm sure you'd like to see that." Clark teased.

Diana blushed and looked away, "You are no better than them inside."

He laughed as he walked up to clear a spot of dirt off of Diana's cheek.

"Oh, I am so much better." He whispered the sentence delicately as if it were a curse. It was a bold line, and he felt himself losing the tight control he always had on his emotions.

Diana paused and looked at Clark's eyes, his windswept hair, and rugged good looks, "I fear that you may be right about that."

Clark couldn't control himself. He felt one hand sliding behind Diana's neck, and the other around her waist. Diana didn't stop him. She would be lying if she said she hadn't imagined this exact moment a million times in her head before brushing it off.

Clark went in for a kiss when Bruce bust out from inside the house, "Come on in it's almost mid—"

Bruce stopped short in his sentence as he saw Clark seconds away from kissing his girlfriend. His best friend.

"Clark? What the hell." Bruce boiled with anger. He was willing to change his life for Diana. He'd felt things for her he didn't know he could feel. He wasn't perfect, but he didn't think he was so terrible to her that she'd go behind his back for this.

"How long has this been going on?" Bruce spit his words out angrily.

Clark stepped away from Diana and put his hands up, "I was being an idiot; it wasn't her fault. This is the first time in months I even talked to her alone Bruce, I swear. Don't be mad at her."

Diana stood dumbfounded. Everything happened so fast, was Clark about to kiss her? Was Bruce about to break up with her? She tried to croak some explanation but she seemed to lose her voice. She looked into Bruce's eyes and saw a look of pain she knew would haunt her for years to come.

"Diana, we're done. There was no point to it anyway, I'm an idiot for thinking you'd work for me." Bruce stood in the arch with his hands curled into angry fists.

Tears started to form in Diana's eyes and Clark felt panicked. He'd faced monsters from other planets, but standing between his two best friends in this moment, he felt a sense of fear more real than anything he'd felt before.

He spoke firmly, "Bruce, you are really angry right now. Be careful with what you say. You're—you're hurting her."

"Please, tell me more about how to treat my girlfriend Clark. You know what, finish making out with her, I'm sure that would cheer her up." Bruce spun on his heels and stormed out of the gardens.

Diana was standing like a statue as tears stubbornly dripped from her eyes.

"Di, I'm so sorry. That's why I kept the distance. I'm an idiot. I'll go talk to him, I'll fix this okay?" He moved to wipe her tears, but she pushed his hand away.

"This is my fault; you couldn't have known I was dating him. I should've been wiser. I hurt him. I _hurt_ him Clark. Did you see how he was looking at me?"

Clark had seen the look and it felt like a dagger in his heart. He'd broken Bruce's trust. He knew they were dating, god dammit he knew, but he went to kiss Diana anyway. He struggled with his words, but he knew telling Diana would make her feel worse.

"He's not thinking straight right now. I'll go talk to him in a second and straighten this all out."

"He doesn't work like that. He made up his mind the second he saw us. And now we have to deal with all the questions about where we were the moment New Year's happened." Diana was crying for the first time in years. She felt like a traitor, disgusting, weak.

She sat on the same bench her and Clark were chatting on earlier, and spent her New Years sullenly crying into her hands as Clark sat next to her, tense and drowning in guilt.

* * *

"Bruce, we need to talk." Clark came up to Bruce as Alfred made a warm cup of hot cocoa for Diana at Clark's request. All the Leaguers had left leaving the house eerily quiet.

Bruce ignored Clark's plea and walked into the Bat Cave. "I have work to do right now."

Clark followed Bruce, "It wasn't her fault. Don't take this out on her."

"Did you know? Did you know we were dating?" Bruce raised an eyebrow at Clark, and his frown told Clark that Bruce already knew the answer.

"No." he lied, avoiding eye contact.

"That's a lie." Bruce continued, "Don't waste my time if you are going to just lie to me."

There was a long pause and then, "I did." The guilt ridden words hung in the air.

"I was willing to give up all the Bruce Wayne antics with her. I was going at her pace. I think as things went on I realized we wouldn't work. The break up was inevitable. You just sped things along. The fact that she was willing to kiss you shows she felt the same, she didn't feel for me romantically."

"She loves you. I know her well enough to tell you that. And you love her, I know you well enough to tell you that."

Bruce didn't deny his claim, "Love isn't all that goes into making a relationship work. You should know that from Lois."

Clark smarted at the Lois comment and changed topics, "I didn't even kiss her Bruce; it was just a dumb thought. She's torn up over this. Just talk to her."

"What am I supposed to tell her? That I forgive her but I still want the relationship to end? That I selfishly brought her into this knowing it was going to have a nasty end? That I dragged her into this knowing full and well she was crazy about you?"

"If that's how you feel, be honest."

Bruce whistled, "Honesty right, so important. I'm sure you told her you knew I was dating her and _still_ went for the kiss regardless. Right?"

"This isn't about me and her."

"Oh, but it is, it always has been. Did you see the way her eyes lit up when you showed up for the party today? Do you notice all the times she slyly changes scheduling so you are on the same missions with her?"

There was no response from Clark.

Bruce sat down in his chair and started typing away on his computer while speaking, "Tell her you knew about us dating, she deserves to know that. Once you have her trust back, stop wasting it. She's going to keep coming back to you as you push her away until one day she just packs up and leaves. I see that now. "

"As _you've _hinted at many times, two of the most powerful people dating would be disastrous. It would get out eventually. She'd have another target on her back. The media would ridicule her, tease her, and belittle her. I'm surprised _you _went for it knowing how much it could hurt her in the long run. Your relationship put her in danger."

Bruce stopped typing and swiveled his chair sharply, rising to look Clark in the face, "You are just shutting yourself into a hole on the basis of one really bad relationship and refuse to grow the hell up. I may be rude for how I treated her out there. I may have been selfish for wanting to try things—you feed me this shit about caring about her, you lead her on, tease her with how much you like her, and then run away. It may be in my nature to be an asshole, but what you are doing, _boy scout_, is ruthless."

Clark was left speechless, "Just talk to your damn girlfriend man. It's New Year's for god's sake."

"I will." Bruce cooled down and backed away from Clark realizing his words about Lois had crossed a line.

Bruce knew what happened with Lois scared Clark senseless. She'd dated Superman, and when Lex used her against him, she almost died. Clark distanced himself from her and it drove Lois insane. Things got so bad they weren't talking at all. And of course, Superman had to spend the rest of the day as Clark, pretending everything was peachy. When he finally told her they were the same person, everything crashed and burned into some of the most painful months of Clark's life. Bruce watched Clark struggle through that year, and he knew he was unfairly shoving Clark's failed relationship back in his face.

Clark ripped Bruce's door off the wall and threw it across the room as he left.

"Thanks for the advice and kind words." He muttered.


End file.
